Product Development Research Cycle

A Historical Review 1960s-1980s

Abstract

Empirical researches of new product developments began in earnest in the 1960s with the “grand approach. " These researches clarified general success factors through the comprehensive analysis of successful project profiles. In the 1970s, the “focus approach" came to fore where analysis focused on specific themes in product development. The latter half of the 1980s saw the focus shift to the “process approach" where the relationship between management of product development process and performance was analyzed in detail. These trends suggest that one characteristic of product development research is a mainstream shift toward the advent of new research approaches in approximate ten-year cycles.