Navigating innovation: a diagnostic tool supporting the process

This paper considers organisations that have adopted the new product development (NPD) process to improve their innovative capabilities. It aims to bring an understanding of the underlying characteristics that may contribute to the degrees of success or failure of NPD within organisations. The paper presents a diagnostic tool described as the "innovation compass" that allows the comparison of empirical findings from case studies. In this paper the innovation compass will be used to illustrate the findings from two case studies which differ on certain characteristics. It permits the quantitative data gathered from the research to be directly compared, facilitating organisations to benchmark. The qualitative data substantiate and elaborate on the quantitative findings, providing a contextual understanding of the companies' product development process. The paper concludes that understanding the context is an important factor in ensuring an effective NPD process.