Testing Major Factors for Reducing Obstacles to Product Innovation Success

摘要

The literature on strategic leadership, competitive intelligence, management of technology, and specific characteristics of the company's change process propose their importance in successfully implementing business innovation. While these factors may indeed be important to enhance company competitiveness, the existing literature contains practically no empirical evidence supporting their relationship to reducing the many problems companies encounter implementing product innovation (PI). Afield test was designed with the primary objective of empirically testing the theoretical model addressing which factors, if "managed appropriately, will help reduce the obstacles to PI in practice. A questionnaire was developed, pilot tested, and used to collect data from 47 product innovation managers. The results support the theoretical importance of strategic leadership, competitive intelligence, management of technology, and specific characteristics of the company's change process to reducing the problems/obstacles to successful PI. The items used for measuring the main constructs provide further insights into how managers should go about developing these areas within their organizations. Based on the results recommendations are made to practitioners and researchers in this important area.