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This report covers empirical research focused on studying the long-term impacts of product innovation processes. Four cases of successful industrial product innovations were studied within two companies over the course of more than five years using in-depth interviews, revisions to case reports according to respondent inputs, study of company documentation, and observations of R&D and production facilities. Specific in-depth comparisons are made between the pairs of appended cases from each company to enable a more full understanding of the innovation processes. Target and peripheral outcomes are described and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative data.

The cases are further analyzed in the main report with respect to input factors that have firm-specific attributes and that influence the outcomes. These factors are categorized as those related to: context external to the company, context internal to the company, phases-activities occurring during the innovation process, and level of product innovativeness. The first three categories of factors have been considered as independent variables, the last category of product innovativeness as a moderating variable, and the outcomes are the dependent variables. The unit of analysis is the overall product innovation process.

The following group of target and peripheral outcomes are found to be of highest importance over the long-term on the basis of both qualitative and quantitative analyses: unit profitability; new customer segments accessed; new product platform(s) created; sales to existing customers; gain of new manufacturing competencies and paradigms; and a set of knowledge gained outcomes for future use in technical systems, new product line extensions, marketing, and organizational and internal product innovation system development. The new manufacturing competencies and paradigms outcome and the knowledge gained set are of interest because these are not usually targeted outcomes at the beginning of product innovation processes yet they have high importance over a long-term perspective. On the basis of quantitative data analysis the outcomes of patent applications filed and increased competence to overcome technical/marketing risks are also considered to be in this group. The importance of the initial target outcomes of retaining present customers, improving unit profitability, and obtaining patent protection increased substantially compared to later equivalent outcomes over the long-time frame of the study.

Other outcomes such as being first into the market and new manufacturing technology acquired are of lower importance than the above group.