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Approaches to the "Fuzzy Front End" of innovation
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.107
Publikationstyp
Working Paper
Date Issued
1999
Sprache
English
Author(s)
TORE-DOI
First published in
Working paper // Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg = Arbeitspapier;2
Number in series
2
In new product development (NPD) unacceptably high failure rates have often been related to insufficiencies during the early development phases. Nevertheless, only little effort is devoted to the early phases, in theory as well as in practice, and managers often indicate the front end as being one of the greatest weaknesses in product innovation. Therefore, it is surprising that only little research has treated the so called "fuzzy front end" of innovation. In this paper we discuss if process models lead to success in the early development phases. Therefore, the discussion about process models for the whole innovation process is briefly summarized and findings applied to the “fuzzy front end”. Due to high uncertainties with a wide range between different innovations in the early phases, process models are found to lead to success for incremental innovations with low market and technological uncertainty only. For innovations with a high market and/or technological uncertainty, a learning-based approach is suggested.
Subjects
breakthrough innovation
fuzzy front end
innovation management
innovation process
new product development
stage-gate process
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