A methodology to assess value creation in academic-based new product development research projects

The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to assess the value creation potential of new product concepts in the fuzzy-front end phase of new product development. To this end, a project of radical innovation born in the frame of the Horizon 2020 research programme and developed within the boundaries of an ‘academic-based new product development research project’ organisation is explored adopting a management accounting lens. The focus of interest is on management accounting practices design and development and how those practices and the resulting calculations can support the passage of innovative product concepts through and beyond the ‘Valley of Death’ – from research to industrial development. The lesson learned from the case analysed in this study is that producing meaningful and credible cost and financial information in the front-end of innovation is indeed possible and more research should be devoted to that. In this paper a baseline methodology to assess the value creation potential of new product concepts is offered and this is done by offering also a new perspective of investigation of the fuzzy front- end phase by means of the academic-based new product development research project organisational framework and the theory of pragmatic constructivism.