RESEARCH NOTE Generating New Product Ideas: An Initial Investigation of the Role of Market Information and Organizational Characteristics Lisa C. Troy Utah State University David M. Szymanski P. Rajan Varadarajan Texas A &M University Although product innovation is widely recognized as cru- cial to the success of organizations, the literature still con- tains certain gaps that limit our understanding of successful product innovation. These gaps include a lack of research employing a decompositional approach (i.e., analysis of the drivers at each stage of the process) to studying product innovation and a related lack of research investigating the effect of organizational characteristics on specific stages of the product innovation process. The authors attempt to close these gaps by developing and test- ing a model examining the moderating effects of organiza- tional characteristics on the relationship between the amount of market information gathered and the number of new product ideas generated by work groups in organiza- tions. The study findings provide insights into the types of organizational structure and climate characteristics that can have an impact on the relationship between amount of market information and new product idea generation. large body of research in marketing has focused on the effects of selected marketplace, organizational, and prod- uct-specific factors on the overall success (e.g., market share, profitability, or success versus failure) of new prod- uct introductions (see reviews in Henard and Szymanski 2001; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994). While the collective efforts yield rich insights into why some new products outperform others, a review of the product inno- vation literature highlights certain gaps that limit our understanding of why some organizations innovate more successfully than others. Product innovation is widely recognized as a cumula- tive process that includes idea generation, idea evaluation, product development and testing, and product launch stages (e.g., Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, Inc. 1982; Crawford 1992). Yet, there is a dearth of empirical research employ- ing a decompositional approach (i.e., analysis of the driv- ers of success at each stage of the process) to studying product innovation. And even though organizational In response to the growing recognition that product innovation is essential to long-term business success, a Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Volume 29, No. 1, pages 89-101. Copyright 9 2001 by Academy of Marketing Science. Editor's Note: As a matter of policy, most peer-reviewed journals exclude from consideration for review and publication in the journal any manuscript authored by the editor of the jour- nal. This research note was reviewed and accepted for publica- tion in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) during Dr. Parsu Parasuraman's term as editor of JAMS.