Degree of innovativeness and new product performance

The relationship between innovativeness and innovations’ success still remains unclear. This lack of consensus stems from a confusion between customer familiarity with the innovation and synergy with the focal firm's existing set of resources and competencies, to explain performance, as well as from the use of different measurement methods. On the basis of a sample of 114 innovation projects in small and medium-sized french companies, using our own measurement method, we show a U-shaped relationship between customer familiarity and performance, and a negative relation, as expected, between newness to the company and the innovation's performance.