New product development benchmarking to enhance operation competitiveness

The long-term survival of a business enterprise hinges upon its ability to introduce new products into the marketplace faster and better than its competitors. In search of the recipe for success, companies have widely adopted the NPD benchmarking to understand the best practices being used throughout the industry. The authors will attempt to provide an overview of NPD benchmarking practices since 30 years ago found from the studies in the literature and to identify those considered as 'best practices'. In doing so, the results of important research efforts undertaken during the last three decades will be summarised. The key conclusions from past studies indicate that NPD processes continue to evolve and to become more sophisticated. Interestingly, more than one-third of all firms in the latest study still use no formal process for managing NPD. The best-practice firms participating in this study do not use financial rewards for NPD. Furthermore, best-practice firms that use more multifunctional teams are more likely to measure NPD processes and outcomes and therefore expect more from the NPD programmes. However, top management support and involvement was an important predictor of NPD.