Product Innovativeness from the Firm’s Perspective: Its Dimensions and Their Impact on Project Selection and Performance

There has recently been tremendous interest in product innovativeness. However, it seems that we need a better understanding of exactly what product innovativeness means. This paper examines product innovativeness from the firm's perspective. A well-known data set of 262 industrial new product projects is used to: 1) clarify the product innovativeness construct and examine its underlying dimensions, 2) examine the effect of product innovativeness on the decision to pursue or kill the project, and 3) examine the relationship between product innovativeness and product performance. Five distinct dimensions of product innovativeness are found which have distinct effects on the Go/No Go decision and on product performance. The paper concludes with implications for academic research on product innovativeness, and provides practitioners with suggestions for making new product decisions.