Awareness, use and effectiveness of models and methods for new product development

Despite the large number of new product models and methods available to improve the success rate of new products, empirical evidence proves that only a few companies actually use them. This seems rather strange because today the pressure on companies to improve their new product development is high. A bottle‐neck may be the extent to which companies are aware of these models and methods. Companies may also have abandoned their use already. To investigate this, gathers empirical data from 75 industrial companies in The Netherlands. Results show that many companies are actually aware of these models and methods. However, they often do not know them by name. The average penetration level is about 30 per cent and the models and methods are used in an unfocused and less formal manner. The level of satisfaction with the performance of most models and methods is high. Furthermore, a positive relationship between the degree of use of models/methods and company′s gross profits exists.