CSFs for pre-development implementation of New Product Development in small and medium-sized enterprises

Success in the pre-development process is important for every organization in order to compete with competitors. In order to survive, organizations need to introduce new products in the marketplace drastically. In view of that, understanding critical success factors (CSFs) that contribute to successfully implementing pre-development is becoming more important. However, most of the past studies were conducted in large organizations; very little has been done in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have certain limitations in terms of their financial, human, and technical resources that could hinder their progress towards implementing the pre-development. This paper reviews and analyses CSFs developed by previous authors in order to propose a set of CSFs, which were thought to be critical for SMEs. Besides, pre-testing with pre-development experts and SMEs practitioners, the questionnaire was also validated through a pilot study with fifty five SMEs. The questionnaire was designed comprising three compulsory activities of pre-development and CSFs for successful pre-development implementation. The final form of the questionnaire consists of twenty five items of pre-development activities within four constructs, and thirty six items of CSFs within nine constructs. Through systematic identification and validation, it is hoped that the set of CSFs could be used as guides for SMEs to implement the pre-development process successfully.