The Impact Of Technology And Market Uncertainty On The Performance Of New Product Development Research

With the turbulence of the external environment, fast development of technology and sever competition, new product development (NPD) faces more and more risks. To improve the performance of NPD and to manage uncertainties in NPD process, this paper analyses the impact of market uncertainty, technological uncertainty and the interaction between the two uncertainties on the performance of NPD, based on the analysis of influencing factors for market and technological uncertainties.This paper analyses influencing factors for market uncertainty from market familiarity factor, market newness factor, market complexity factor and technological uncertainty factor;and analyses influencing factors for technological uncertainty from technological familiarity factor, technological newness factor, technological complexity factor and market uncertainty factor. In a study of 118 Chinese enterprises engaging NPD, the regression results and statistic estimates show conclusions as follows:Firstly, finds that market familiarity does impact market uncertainty negatively;and that both market newness and technological uncertainty have positive effects on market uncertainty;and that market complexity has no influece on market uncertainty.Secondly, finds that technological newness, technological complexity and market uncertainty all have positive influences on technological uncertainty, while technological familiarity has a negetative effect on technological uncertainty.Thirdly, finds that technological and market uncertainties influence NPD performance negatively. The study also finds the effect of interaction between technological uncertainty and marker uncertainty on NPD performance is different in terms of enterprise size. That is, technological uncertainty moderates the effect of market uncertainty on NPD performance in the large and medium enterprises, while technological uncertainty has no effect on the relationship between market uncertainty and NPD performance in small enterprises.It is a challenging job to research the impact of market and technological uncertainties on NPD performanace. Some significant conclusions are drawn from this research. While considering the complexity of the issue, the limitations of this study are unavoidable. In the end, some suggestions are given for future research.