Understanding antecedents of new product development speed: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

New product development (NPD) speed is a key component of time‐based strategy, which has become increasingly important for managing innovation in a fast‐changing business environment. This meta‐analytic review assesses the generalizability of the relationships between NPD speed and 17 of its antecedents to provide a better understanding of the salient and cross‐situationally consistent factors that affect NPD speed. We grouped the antecedents into four categories of strategy, project, process, and team, and found that process and team characteristics are more generalizable and cross‐situationally consistent determinants of NPD speed than strategy and project characteristics. We also conducted subgroup analyses and found that research method variables, such as level of analysis, source of data, and measurement of speed, moderate the relationships between NPD speed and its antecedents. We apply the study's findings to assess several models of NPD speed, such as the balanced model of product development, the strategic orientation and organizational capability model, the compression vs. the experiential model, the centrifugal and centripetal model, and the product development cycle time model. We also discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.