Consequences of new product development speed : a meta-analysis

Despite the widespread contention that development speed is a prerequisite for successful new product development, there exists insufficient, often conflicting empirical evidence regarding how speed relates to the different dimensions of new product success. Given that new product success is a multifaceted construct, it is of paramount importance for scholars and practitioners to understand the precise way in which development speed bears on the operational, marketplace and financial outcomes of new product development. The purpose of this article is to extend previous empirical generalizations in the domain and advance scholarly knowledge of the relationship between development speed and new product success at a more granular level. To this end, we use established meta-analytic techniques which allow the systematic integration of empirical findings from existing research. Our analyses are generally supportive of a positive relationship between faster product development and overall new product success, as well as more specific measures of marketplace and financial performance. With the exception of technical quality, operational outcome measures (i.e., development costs, product advantage and proficient market entry timing) also display a positive association with speed. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that only the speed-proficient market entry timing relationship is crosssituationally consistent. Subsequent moderator analyses identify a number of methodological and contextual features of the meta-analyzed studies responsible for the heterogeneity in the original findings. Selection of organizations (random vs. non-random) and operationalization of development speed (absolute vs. relative and single vs. multi-item) emerge as significant moderators of the speed-success link. To provide a more holistic picture of development speed we also conduct a meta-analysis of the antecedents of development speed. The results are broadly consistent with those produced by earlier meta-analytic investigations. Together, these findings have important implications for academics pursuing further research in this domain, as well as for managers considering implementing a program to increase new product development speed.