New product development capabilities of the Turkish electronics industry

Summary form only given. This paper reports on a project funded by the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey and dealing with the assessment of the new product development capabilities of the Turkish electronics industry. The new product and technology development capabilities of the Turkish companies in the electronics industry will be assessed by comparing them among themselves as well as with the universal best practices in the field. An assessment survey is conducted using mailed questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. A questionnaire has been developed for this purpose using a Linkert scale of five in most of the questions. It consists of the following eight main sections: general information; market and competition; new product development strategy; means and resources; human resources policies and management processes; new product development process management; interaction and communication; obstructing factors for new product development. The general managers of the firms are asked to oversee the completion of the forms in their firms. For the last two sections of the questionnaire, responses are sought from the R&D, marketing and manufacturing managers separately. The questionnaire has been tested with 5 firms and has reached its final structure. It has been mailed to 91 firms in Turkey and 14 firms abroad. The survey covers all members of the Turkish electronics industry. A set of questions has been prepared for the interviews in order to be able-to conduct the interviews in a structured way and they have been tested with 2 firms before being finalized.