ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of respondents' verbal statements of attitude and intention as a basis for predicting their future behavior when the innovation is introduced to the market. It describes the nature of the new product development process and the place of attitude and intentions measurement within it. The chapter assesses the measurement as an input to go/no-go decisions during this process. It presents alternative depiction of the attitude behavior relationship to that prevalent in consumer research and describes some of the consequences for marketing research and new product management. New product development (NPD) is most effective when it takes the form of a formal process rather than ad hoc procedures governed by intuition or gut feel'. Fishbein model actually predicts behavioral intentions rather than behavior. An interesting element of Bem's theory is that attitudes do not simply follow behavior: verbal self-descriptions can also act as self-instructions which guide future behavior.
