Evaluating new product development process in the banking industry : a case study of Bank of Africa

Abstract

New product development is one of the main factors in achieving and maintaining relevance in the financial industry. The life cycle of products is very short in contemporary financial business environment and it is getting even shorter by the year. This renders new product development a formidable driver of business development and sustainability in the industry. This research study seeks to evaluate the new product development process in the banking industry with focus on Bank of Africa Uganda Ltd. The research study adopted the descriptive design. The sample size was made of 34 respondents from 3 branches of Bank of Africa Uganda Limited selected using stratified random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. A five point Likert scale was used to determine the ratings of the responses. Data was collected using structured questionnaires which employed a five-point Likert scale in rating various responses. Data was analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences, (SPSS). The descriptive analysis was done to show the mean, frequency distribution and percentage results. The findings revealed four new product development process of Bank of Africa Uganda Ltd namely; idea generation, design creation, creating the product/service and defining the market. Idea generation most important because ideas are undertaken to expand in the bank’s current range of innovation. The study showed that new products are designed to improve on the banks already existing products and services. The study also indicated that bank of Africa in its new product development process bases a lot on concurrent development processes while also including the customer’ voice at all development levels. The study suggested remedies to challenges to include; bank of Africa focusing on the planning of its functionalities and getting the right people/ team to work with at each level of development as this will lower development cost of products or services, encourage innovation and adoption of technology will lead to quality of developed products.