A laddering approach to the use of methods and techniques to reduce the cycle time of new-to-the-firm products

Millson, Raj, and Wilemon have developed the earliest extant knowledge on t he implementation of methods and techniques to reduce new product developme nt (NPD) cycle time by suggesting a hierarchy! of generic NPD acceleration approaches, The purpose of this article is to extend Millson, Raj, and Wile mon's hierarchy by recasting and augmenting the conceptual basis of their h ierarchy for new-to-the-firm products. Taking this hierarchy of generic NPD acceleration approaches as a starting point, the authors set out to form a number of generic NPD acceleration approaches by surveying the literature and conducting nr? experience survey with academics and managers. A logical and purposeful implementation sequence subsequently is established by usin g the laddering technique. The results indicate that managers make tradeoff s in NPD with regard to speed, development costs, and customer value, and t hat not all generic NPD acceleration approaches need to be implemented in o rder to obtain the greatest effectiveness. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.