Where New Product Development Begins : Success Factors, Contingencies and Balancing Acts in the Fuzzy Front End

In light of the increasing attention to predevelopment activities in new product development, this paper reviews the literature on the “fuzzy front end” (FFE). By means of an extensive literature study, we identify, describe and analyze 17 important success factors for organizing and managing the FFE. Our findings first highlight which success factors firms need to excel in when managing and organizing the FFE. Second, the findings show that focusing these factors is not sufficient as such, as interdependencies among factors call for a broader approach. Therefore, relationships among factors and not just the factors per se need to be taken into account. Third, the paper identifies key contingencies requiring adjustment of the FFE process at the firm level. Furthermore, the paper draws attention to several “balancing acts” which impose on firms a trade-off among important variables, where maximizing one dimension may imply the minimizing on another. The paper ends with additional post-hoc analysis of the literature, followed by implications for the scholarly literature as well as management practice