The Relationships between Internal and External Environmental Factors of the Turkish Firms with Respect to New Product Development Strategies

The development and introduction of new products to market has been a challenging activity for many firms for many years, especially in the last two decades, as the competitiveness in business environment has increased. The number of new product introductions has grown up drastically. Enhanced globalization, competition and customer expectations not only has decreased time-to-market and the lifecycle of the products, but also increased product variety. The imposing factors of new product development from literature mostly have appeared in the external environment of firms. Changes in the competition conditions of the market, customer expectations, and legal constraints, bargaining power of suppliers and changing raw materials and other inputs are examples of these external factors. Considering these conditions as a whole and to understand how firms can survive and be successful, the dynamics, which influence NPD activities, must be analyzed. The aim of this study is to assist the firms in their new product development efforts.