Innovate or perish : success factors and sources of failures

This article has three objectives: 1) identify the determinants of success that may affect new product development projects (NPD); (2) illustrate the impact of the types of risk on the success rate of NPD projects; and 3) make suggestions to better understand the issues and challenges faced by firms when they engage in projects of NPD. Its major contribution to the advancement of knowledge is twofold. Firstly, it incorporates the contributions of the three main trends of literature dedicated to the management of NPD: 1) research that is interested in the determinants of performance in the context of NPD projects management; 2) that which is related to the identification of the success and failure factors of the NPD projects; and 3) that which deals with the identification and management of risk in NPD projects. Secondly, this article considers, as its unit of analysis, SMEs that are rarely empirically studied in the literature on innovation management. The results of this study are based on a survey by questionnaire of 158 innovative manufacturing firms in the region of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches (Canada). They are based on the estimation of a model of binary logistic regression linking the propensity of SMEs to NPD failure, and several explanatory variables derived from these three streams of literature. The results of the estimation of this model showed that the propensity of SMEs to fail in their projects of NPD grows with the increase of the importance attached by firms to success factors related to human resources, to the match between clients and products, to the framework of the NPD project, and to organizational climate and support. However, this probability decreases with the increase of the importance attached by firms to success factors related to the escalation of commitment of the project leader and his team, to the risks related to the NPD projects including those related to the underestimation of resources and communication within the project tea