Innovation Strategies Under Uncertainty: A Contingency Approach for New Product Development

Abstract

Innovation is especially critical, yet risky, in dynamic, uncertain markets where the product or service employs new and uncertain technologies. Under these conditions, the new product professional should rely on a variety of tools and techniques to assist him or her to innovate more effectively with a greater probability of succeeding. The new product development literature offers several tools to help. These tools are based on one of six innovation strategies: process, speed, learning, market, technology, and quantitative. However, it is not clear which strategy should be used and when. This article examines these dominant innovation strategies and evaluates their applicability in the environment of emerging markets with emerging technologies. We have found that for the more extreme forms of innovation, a learning-based strategy will improve the chances of success.