A Product Innovation Measure for Indian Automobile Industry: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

The main agenda behind this research is to develop an empirically validated scale so that it is easier to measure the perception of personal vehicle users in respect of product innovation they are seeking in Indian Automobile Industry. Design/methodology/approach: A 36 item questionnaire on product innovation in Automobile Industry was developed and tested for reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. SPSS 19 and AMOS 20 were used for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The data was collected from personal vehicle users of the selected brands in Delhi NCR. Findings: The study identified eight factors namely Product uniqueness, Product design, Autonomy, Novelty, Product newness, Technology, Green product & Continuous updating as the key dimensions of product innovation in Indian Automobile industry. Originality/value: This scale can be a great help for the industry to set up new benchmarks in the product innovation from a user’s perspective, focussing more on innovating, and framing policies & practices regarding product innovation. Since different dimensions have been found in this research each dimension can be taken as yardstick for the overall enhancement in the quality of Automobile sector.