Market Evaluation

Over the past 50 years, research has shown that most new innovations are unsuccessful. In fact, if success is defined as providing a reasonable return on initial investment, less than 1 in 100 projects achieve this milestone. Most business development [Page 322]efforts are seen to be unsuccessful; for example, G. Stevens and S. Burley found that of 3,000 unwritten raw ideas, only 1 resulted in commercial success. Whereas many factors can influence opportunity outcomes, one of the most common causes of failure is that the innovation does not meet the market need at a competitive price.

The introduction of a market evaluation and validation process into the commercialization path can reduce the likelihood of failure. By adopting a formal market evaluation process, which the innovator does ...