The paper consists of two parts. The first part presents a new research methodology of a complex problem in business decision-making: determining the relative importance of the criteria for selecting a new product. This methodology facilitates providing recommendations for defining the relative importance of criteria and subcriteria for selecting a new product depending on the present situation in the company selecting a new product and its setting. In this manner is determined mutual dependence of the relative importance of criteria for selecting a new product on the company’s degree of success. For this reason, the whole procedure has a dynamic character, and it can be applied to various situations and at different moments of observation. Recommendations provided in this way represent the input data and support for subsequent multicriteria ranking of the alternatives for a new product.The second part of the paper deals with the practical application and confirmation of the proposed methodology. In this part are presented the results of the research on the criteria and subcriteria for selecting a new product which are provided by applying the proposed methodology. The research showed that there is a clearly expressed mutual dependence between the importance of the criteria for selecting a new product and the company’s degree of success, and also that the observed dependence can be researched with the methodology which is presented in this paper. The obtained results have already been applied in practice and proved very useful and reliable.The research refers to food industry and economic conditions in Serbia and Montenegro. However, this research methodology can also be applied — with certain alterations — to other industrial branches, and in conditions in economies with different levels of development. The proposed methodology is also important because of its universality, because it can also be applied to research on other problems and phenomena in management, with or without appropriate and respective adaptations.
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