New Product Development Competencies and Capabilities: The Case of the Fashion SME

Abstract

Research on new product development (NPD) is long standing. However, several omissions in the extant knowledge base require renewed attention in this area. Three key shortcomings are apparent in existing research: it is dominated by a focus on large organisations; excludes creative sectors of the economy and, primarily uses functionally based investigations rather than integrative or strategic approaches. This article unifies the disparate threads of new product development research into an holistic, theoretical framework specifically focused on the small-medium fashion enterprise. Small businesses in the creative sector of the economy (fashion in particular), generate significant innovations. However, they often lack commercial business skills, leading to organisational failure. There is little in the existing research literature to guide them. This study is theoretically grounded with a competence-capability perspective and provides a framework that allows individuals or organisations to evaluate their performance (and therefore needs) on the skills required for commercial success, serves to aid the design of future training initiatives and provides an agenda for future research.