Action patterns taken in developing successfully marketed innovative products – the cases of machinery technology and material technology in Japan

This paper clarifies the action patterns of Japanese companies in developing successfully marketed products. These action patterns depend on the character of technology development processes, research-based or improvement and machinery technology or material technology. The action patterns also depend on whether managers are customer conscious or not and whether managers are competitor conscious or not. The analysis of the paper has found several action patterns. For example, material technology development always images existing markets, whereas machinery technology development sometimes images new markets or no clear markets. Research-based development and highly customer conscious development tend to image new markets or no clear markets.