Critical success factors for new product development in Hong Kong toy industry

Hong Kong's manufacturers have become some of the most efficient toy producers in the world and have become the biggest exporter of toys in the world. However, the Hong Kong toy industry is mainly original engineering manufacturing (OEM) and does not invest much in R&D, such as the creation of new toys or development of new toy designs. With the rising competition from mainland China and other Asian countries, it is important for Hong Kong companies to invest more in R&D and to develop their own design capabilities or more value-added edges which cannot be substituted easily by our competitors. The research reported in this paper aims to explore the success factors for new product development in the Hong Kong toy industry. Although there is plenty of research on this issue, critical success factors (CSF) for new product development (NPD) may be country and industry specific. Research on CSF for NPD, especially at the project and functional levels, for toy industry has not been reported. Using the biblical metaphor model, this research identifies a group of critical success factors for each phase of new product development. What is more, the research also reveals what factors have been implemented and what have not. The implications from this search, therefore, are very obvious and companies can easily identify the areas for future improvement. Comparing with previous research, this research is more operational. Since the research is especially designed for Hong Kong toy industry, the results may not be generated to other industries in other countries. However, the research design and the data analysis framework can be used to investigate the same problem in other industries.