Generating new product ideas: An initial investigation of the role of market information and organizational characteristics

Although product innovation is widely recognized as crucial to the success of organizations, the literature still contains certain gaps that limit our understanding of successful product innovation. These gaps include a lack of research employing a decompositional approach (i,e., analysis of the drivers at each stage of the process) to studying product innovation and a related lack of research investigating the effect of organizational characteristics on specific stages of the product innovation process. The authors attempt to close these gaps by developing and testing a model examining the moderating effects of organizational characteristics on the relationship between the amount of market information gathered and the number of new product ideas generated by work groups in organizations. The study findings provide insights into the types of organizational structure and climate characteristics that can have an impact on the relationship between amount of market information and new product idea generation. Lisa C. Troy is an assistant professor of marketing at Utah State University. She earned her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Her research interests include product innovation management, environmental marketing, and international marketing management. Her work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Marketing. David M. Szymanski is the Al and Marion Withers Research Fellow and Director, Center for Retailing Studies in the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in the areas of applied meta-analysis, marketing strategy, personal selling and sales management, product innovation, and retail strategy. Representative research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Retailing. P. Rajan Varadarajan is a professor of marketing and the Jenna and Calvin R. Guest professor of business administration at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in the areas of corporate, business, and marketing strategy. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAcademy of Management Journal, theStrategic Management Journal, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Business Horizons, and other journals.