New Product Development: a review of the main contributions in the last ten years of research

Research on new product development have increased enormously over the last 10 years. As markets are becoming increasingly fluid and unstable, companies had to become more flexible and de-structured, thereby trying to overcome traditional approaches which used to interpret new product development as a process formed by a linear sequence of successive stages, traditionally undertaken within corporate boundaries. Based on these considerations, this study offers an overview of the evolution of the management literature regarding new product development, published over the last 10 years (2008-2018) in peer-reviewed journals. When applying a bibliometric analysis, we have discovered the existence of five clearly defined research clusters which we have investigated by reviewing the most relevant contributions. Also, the analysis has helped us to uncover the existence of promising research areas that have been little explored. As a result, we formulated some suggestions for further research to fill the existing gaps.