A discriminant model for identifying scenarios of industrial new product failure

This investigation of product failure has enabled the development and validation of a typology of new product failure. The methodology used, namely MDA combined with ANOVAS and Duncan Multiple Range Tests, represents a new application for these familiar analysis tools—an application which marketing managers may find useful in the analysis of their own product failures. At the same time the six scenarios developed provide the basis for a classification scheme for post-hoc analysis of failures in an industrial setting. This is the first time a classification scheme for product failures has been constructed using empirical data and these analysis techniques. Besides being rigorously developed and validated, the scenarios are intuitively plausible and appear to make sense to the manager.