NPD IN SMALL MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES IN SERBIA

New product development in small manufacturing enterprises on the territory of Serbia was investigated on a representative sample of micro and small enterprises covering a broad range of businesses. It was found that market pull was the prevalent strategy for new product development, which was characterized by close collaboration with customers from the idea to the final product including the R&D activities. Besides customers, the main sources of ideas were competitors and trade fairs or exhibitions. The marketing activities associated with new product introduction were quite limited. These findings were compared with new product development practices in neighboring countries. Based on our findings we propose two measures to improve new product development in small manufacturing enterprises in Serbia: establish a closer cooperation with external knowledge centers (universities, research institutes, innovation centers) and set up innovation networks with complementary partners by actively using the open innovation concept.