THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS, PRODUCT NEWNESS AND MARKET INFORMATION

The purpose of this study is to propose product newness and obtaining market information as mediators of the relationship between the technological advancement of a new product and its commercial success. So far, little is known about the mediators of this relationship but knowledge about the factors that strengthen or weaken it is valid, both for the theory and practice of new product management. On the one hand, product newness – those elements that constitute its novelty to the company and to the market – is hypothesized as a factor that weakens the relationship while, on the other hand, obtaining market information – information gathered from customers, competitors and other sources – is expected to strengthen it. This research is based on data regarding 287 new products developed by Polish high-tech and medium high-tech companies. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were applied to test the parallel multiple mediator model. The results of this research show that the positive effect of the technological advancement of a new product on its commercial performance is mediated, on the one hand, negatively by product newness to the company and, on the other hand, positively by gathering market information from customers. Neither product newness to the market nor obtaining market information from competitors or from other entities cause any indirect effects. While developing technologically advanced products, it is recommend to train new product development staff in ways of dealing with new tasks and situations that arise during such developments, and also to focus more on gathering market information from customers than from competitors or other entities because this will positively influence the new products’ success.