Risk and success factors assesment for new product development projects by using fuzzy DEMATEL

Technological developments and changes in social and economic life lead companies to an increasingly competitive environment. It become compulsory for companies that want to exist in this competitive environment to adopt an understanding of innovation and to carry out new product development projects in this context. By its very nature, new product development projects are one-off, with a high degree of uncertainty and risk. In this study, it is aimed to determine the internal and external risks faced by the firms in Adana and conducting new product development processes and the factors that affect the success of this process. In this context, according to the report published by the R & D General Directorate of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, experts from the enterprises operating in Adana and having R & D Center were interviewed. The fuzzy DEMATEL technique, that is the most suitable technique for this study, was used to determine the relationships between the risk and success factors encountered during the new product development process and the importance of these factors. The most important risk factors and success factors were determined according to the sectors in the application carried out on the product development process for the four companies in the food and textile sectors operating in Adana province and the differentiating aspects of the two sectors were revealed.