Investigating the Factors affecting on the Incubation Phase of New Product Development Process in Knowledge-based Companies by employing DEMATEL and System dynamics approaches

Knowledge-based companies need to pay more attention to the challenges of the new products development process due to their knowledge-based nature. Given the importance of these companies in the development of countries' economies, this research examines the new products development (NPD) process in these companies. Firstly, the relationships between the factors were evaluated using the DEMATEL technique and the degree of importance of each factor were determined. Results indicate that the most important factors affecting the time of incubation phase included: customer requirements, rework, and delay in the onset of the phases of NPD. These factors have the highest impact on increased time and costs in the processes of knowledge-based companies and share of knowledge has the highest impact on customer requirements and rework. Therefore, considering the accurate knowledge management, which is associated with the share of knowledge, is of paramount importance. The results of DEMATEL demonstrate that the level of complexity of a new project had the most impact on delays in moving from one stage to another due to the fact that complexities require more coordination. Also the dynamic model of NPD process shows the effect of these factors in each stages of the incubation phase.