New, but slow – technical newness challenges late stage development speed

The down-stream processes where new product prospects undergo pilot testing and adjustments before market launch can have significant impact on development speed. Previous literature has primarily pointed to firm traits as influential factors to speed. However, product specific measures such as technical innovativeness may be a critical factor when going through the crucial late stages of development. We have limited knowledge of the relation between product newness and the speed of NPD, and how this may be related to firm size and partnering strategies during development. Combining product traits with firm resources relevant to late stage development speed can enrich our understanding of time-tomarket in the aim of improving this crucial measure of NPD. The research model is tested on a dataset of all new drug developments approved for the US market 2000-2010. The results show that newness of a product, small size of a development company and partnering for external resources all increases the speed of late stage development speed. The results show that technical innovativeness of products in late stage development has the consequence of extending this important process of NPD. Also, partnering strategies as well as small development companies have a negative effect on the speed of late stage development. These results have the implications to managers, that in the case of developing technical innovative products, the allocation of resources in the development process should be considered accordingly.