Pattern on New Product Introductions and Firm Performance: Consideration of Timing and Target: An Abstract

Abstract

Recent studies of the action-based view explored the relationship between a firm’s performance and its series of actions/reactions in a given year. However, they did not differentiate between the types of actions/reactions (e.g., the 4P marketing mix) and focused only on generic factors that determine success, such as volume, speed, and variety. Thus, this study focuses only on new product introduction and aims to identify the key factors that determine success in a series of introductions and how they affect firm performance and examine the moderating effects of market conditions (i.e., competitive intensity and market variability) and firm characteristics (i.e., firm resources and experience).

The study sample included 2198 new products introduced in four markets by 35 firms in the soft drink industry during 2008 to 2014. The author conducted a content analysis and identified the types of new product introductions related to timing (early vs. late) and targeting (existing customers vs. new customers). The author used 175 firm-year observations (35 firms × 5 years) to estimate a random-effects regression model.

The results for timing showed that a firm is likely to perform better using both early and late introductions of new products than specializing in either timing. The results for targeting showed that a firm is likely to perform better introducing new products that target both existing and new customers than choosing to introduce a product for either customer type.

This study’s findings offer new insights into both the action-based view and marketing strategy research. Additionally, they provide managers with a guideline for managing a series of new product introductions.