ANALYSIS OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESSES IN NPD PROJECTS WITHIN INNOVATIVE COMPANIES. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN THE VALENCIAN REGION (SPAIN)

The decisions made during the design process have a critical impact both on the design solution obtained but also on the design process itself. It can be observed that while the way in which products are developed differs not only across firms but within the same firm over time, what is being decided seems to remain fairly consistent [2]. After a thorough Literature research many references addressing decision processes developed within the NPD have been found. In the paper by Krishnan and Ullrich [4] an extensively list the most common decisions made in each phase of the development process of new products is presented. While rigorous at a bibliographical level, this work has not been empirically verified yet. Therefore, an empirical study to inquire whether decisions considered usual in the literature were actually common within the framework of innovative companies in the Valencia region (Spain) has been carried out. The empirical study has covered a representative sample of innovative companies in this region. A questionnaire including all decisions identified was prepared and sent by mail to all the companies belonging to the sample, whose aim was to determine the frequency these decisions are usually made. At the same time this study has been used to find out the patterns of decision-making processes in those innovative companies. The analysis of the results obtained confirmed that the decisions identified in the literature do correspond to the decisions mostly made in innovative companies of the Valencia Region and that they all follow a specific pattern.