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Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain

Publication ,  Journal Article
Boulding, W; Morgan, R; Staelin, R
Published in: Journal of Marketing Research
February 1, 1997

Although an important aspect of managing new product introductions is to recognize and quickly take action when a product launch has failed (i.e., “pull the plug”), senior managers in a new product launch setting tend to remain committed to a losing course of action. The authors investigate this issue with controlled experiments, using senior level executives as subjects. Their results suggest a strong bias toward continued commitment to failing new products. Consequently, the authors devise and test the effectiveness of five decision aids aimed at reducing this bias. Improving the quality of the information environment does not greatly reduce bias, nor does precommitment (at time of launch) to self-specified decisions rules. The most effective methods of reducing commitment to a losing course of action appear to be either precommitment to a predetermined decision rule or introduction of a new decision maker at the time of the stop/no stop decision. Of these two methods, the latter produces marginally less commitment to a losing course of action. However, none of the tested decision procedures completely reduces commitment to a losing course of action relative to the control condition.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Journal of Marketing Research

DOI

EISSN

1547-7193

ISSN

0022-2437

Publication Date

February 1, 1997

Volume

34

Issue

1

Start / End Page

164 / 176

Related Subject Headings

  • Marketing
  • 3506 Marketing
  • 1505 Marketing
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Boulding, W., Morgan, R., & Staelin, R. (1997). Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(1), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379703400114
Boulding, W., R. Morgan, and R. Staelin. “Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain.” Journal of Marketing Research 34, no. 1 (February 1, 1997): 164–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379703400114.
Boulding W, Morgan R, Staelin R. Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain. Journal of Marketing Research. 1997 Feb 1;34(1):164–76.
Boulding, W., et al. “Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain.” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 34, no. 1, Feb. 1997, pp. 164–76. Scopus, doi:10.1177/002224379703400114.
Boulding W, Morgan R, Staelin R. Pulling the Plug to Stop the New Product Drain. Journal of Marketing Research. 1997 Feb 1;34(1):164–176.

Published In

Journal of Marketing Research

DOI

EISSN

1547-7193

ISSN

0022-2437

Publication Date

February 1, 1997

Volume

34

Issue

1

Start / End Page

164 / 176

Related Subject Headings

  • Marketing
  • 3506 Marketing
  • 1505 Marketing