An ecological perspective on new product failure: The effects of competitive overcrowding
An ecological perspective on new product failure: The effects of competitive overcrowding
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新产品失败的生态视角：竞争过度拥挤的影响
DOI：
10.1111/1540-5885.1230200
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发表时间：
1995
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
W. Redmond
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
W. Redmond
从业者和研究人员仔细地探索了新产品失败的原因。已经进行了研究，分析了结果，并提出了建议。然而，尽管做出了这些努力，新产品的失败率并没有下降。事实上，在某些产品类别中，这种情况似乎正在增加。我们错过了什么吗？注意到大多数关于新产品失败的研究都集中在公司在特定项目中的活动上，William H. Redmond提出，新产品的结果也可能受到宏观层面或环境因素的影响。通过关注环境因素而不是公司在特定项目中的活动，我们可能更好地理解为什么一个行业中有能力的公司总是比那些没有能力但在不同行业中运营的公司经历更高的失败率。例如，新食品的不合格率始终高于新工业产品。由于没有证据表明工业公司的产品开发专业人员比食品行业的同行优越，雷德蒙博士建议我们需要超越具体的产品开发项目，考虑这些产品引入的市场的影响。受过去成功的鼓舞，许多食品制造企业通过开发和引进额外的新产品来寻求销售增长。随着时间的推移，这创造了一个市场，在这个市场中，客户需求被分割成越来越小的利基市场，分销渠道充斥着产品选择。因此，新产品失败的可能性比在市场不那么拥挤的情况下更大。就像一个岛屿上的鹿的数量受到可用食物和物理空间的限制一样，食品产品显然面临着与自然选择相当的市场。在缺乏市场利基和明确的竞争优势的情况下，新产品成功的机会微乎其微。在一个因现有产品和新产品推出而过度拥挤的市场中，寻找有意义的差异化机会变得越来越困难和不经济。另一方面，工业产品面临着一套截然不同的环境条件。与食品制造业务相比，相对较少的新工业产品被引入，这些引入通常是成功的。在大多数情况下，新产品只是替代低效或过时的产品。在这样的环境下，失败的介绍很可能是产品开发过程中的错误造成的。
Practitioners and researchers have carefully explored the causes of new product failures. Studies have been conducted, results analyzed, and recommendations offered. Yet despite these efforts, new product failure rates have not decreased. In fact, they appear to be increasing in some product categories. Are we missing something? Noting that most research on new product failures has focused on a firm's activities in specific projects, William H. Redmond proposes that new product outcomes might also be influenced by macro-level or environmental factors. By focusing on environmental factors rather than a firm's activities in specific projects, we might better understand why competent firms in one industry consistently experience higher failure rates than those of firms that are no more competent, but operate in a different industry. For example, failure rates for new food products are consistently higher than those for new industrial products. With no evidence that product development professionals in industrial firms are simply superior to their counterparts in the food industry, Dr. Redmond suggests that we need to look beyond specific product development projects and consider the effects of the market in which these products are introduced. Encouraged by past successes, many firms in the food manufacturing business seek sales growth through the development and introduction of additional new products. Over time, this creates a market in which customer demand is fragmented into increasingly small niches and distribution channels are flooded with product choices. As a result, the failure of a new product is more likely than it might have been under less crowded conditions. In much the same way that the population of deer on an island is limited by the available food and physical space, food products are apparently faced with the market equivalent of natural selection. In the absence of available market niches and a clear competitive advantage, a new product' s chances for success are meager. In a market that is overcrowded by existing products and new product introductions, it becomes increasingly difficult and uneconomical to identify opportunities for meaningful differentiation. On the other hand, industrial products face a much different set of environmental conditions. Compared to the food manufacturing business, relatively few new industrial products are introduced, and those introductions are typically successful. In most cases, the new products are simply replacements for inefficient or obsolete products. In such an environment, failed introductions are probably the result of errors in the product development process.