Managers' Knowledge of Marketing Principles: The Case of New Product Development

Steven Cierpicki, Malcolm Wright, and Byron Sharp , Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science, Vol. 5, p.771-790.


Abstract

Do marketing managers have well-established marketing principles to guide decision making? We addressed this question by examining 15 principles of new product development obtained from an expert panel of Australian senior marketing practitioners. Of these 15, three turned out to be tautologies, six had at least some empirical support, and six were partly or fully contradicted by empirical studies. In examining the literature for evidence, we were also able to identify five wellestablished ‘empirical generalisations’ about new product development. These results indicate that while principles of new product development do exist, there are fewer of them than we might have thought, and practitioners appear unable to distinguish between good and bad principles.


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