Innovativeness and new product success: insights from the cumulative evidence

Abstract

The field of product innovation has expanded rapidly and clear insights regarding the relationship between product innovativeness and new product performance have become more elusive and difficult to discern through qualitative reviews of the literature. To offer much needed clarity, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of 95 correlations on product innovativeness and new product performance that were recorded from 32 studies on the topic. The findings reveal that although the average correlation of 0.24 for innovativeness with performance is small to moderate in size, the relationship is more substantial when various measurement and contextual elements are considered. For example, innovativeness measures that include a meaningfulness dimension yield stronger estimates of relationship strength. The findings also reveal that innovativeness today may not represent the same competitive advantage as in previous years unless the focus is on products rather than services, and specifically, new-to-the-market rather than new-to-the-firm products. Thus, innovativeness can be particularly relevant to new product success but only under certain conditions.

Forecasting consumer perception of innovativeness

“…This is consistent with prior research in the area of internet shopping which has shown that consumer intentions to search and buy online are most strongly affected by their utilitarian rather than their hedonic motivations (To, Liao and Lin, 2007). Given that two meta analyses have shown a weak correlation between product innovativeness and new product success (Henard and Szymanski, 2001;Szymanski et al, 2007), these results, which focus on consumer perception of innovativeness, emphasize the importance of understanding individual consumer behavior processes to evaluate innovations.…”

“…The study also is the first to show how affect is an important aspect of the innovation evaluation process. A better understanding of the consumer side of innovation may also help explain the somewhat inconsistent relationship between product innovativeness and new product success (Henard and Szymanski, 2001;Szymanski, Kroff, and Troy, 2007;Verdegem and De Marez, 2011). However, still the literature provides little consensus on how consumers perceive innovations (Garcia and Calantone, 2002), and specifically, little consensus on what innovativeness is, as rated by consumers.…”

Supplier traits for better customer firm innovation performance

“…Overall and in line with Szymanski, Kroff, and Troy (2007) we expect the innovativeness of the product developed by the project with the supplier's contribution (i.e., NPD effectiveness) to be related to the product's performance. We hypothesize:…”

“…In contrast, some research reveals that the innovativeness-new product performance relationship only holds under selected conditions (e.g., Szymanski, Kroff, and Troy, 2007) or that highly innovative products may have a negative impact on new product performance. This is, for example, due to the fact that customers may have negative associations with high-tech products and therefore hesitant to purchase them.…”

“…As a generalization of their decade-long research program focused on companies from a dozen of industrial and transition economies operating in business-to-business markets, Deshpandé and Farley (2004, p. 18) conclude that innovativeness has a consistently positive impact on firm performance, particularly in the industrial world. Likewise, Szymanski, Kroff, and Troy (2007) deduce from their recent meta-analysis that the relationship between innovativeness and new product success is small but positive on average.…”