Thank you for your reply.
The discipline is from both engineering and science (research).
I study management of technological process innovation.
I will allow cross-field comparison, i.e. I study various sectors of non-continuous process industry (discrete, assembled product) such as automotive, machinery, etc.

In terms of successful project completion, one of the most critical success factors identified so far (literature), is clear vision and clear objectives of the innovation project. The companies I will be looking for (no ad-hoc innovation management but structured approach) should have a written record of the completed projects. The same remark would apply to 10 years period, at least for this moment. Once I start process of companies selection for the project I may need to revise my requirements.

Hi,
I am conducting the research in the field of the technological process innovation.
It will be carried it out within the manufacturing companies.
I need to qualify 8-10 companies for my project.
One of the steps is to determine whether:
- a company is a persistent 'process innovator' (e.g. it conducted say 2-3 process innovation projects within last 10 years)
- the innovation projects were completed successfully.
Therefore, I need to define the selection criteria.

The literature presents tens of 'factors' that can assist as 'judges' in determining whether the innovation project was successful, for example, project objectives fulfilment, improvement in process efficiency, issued patents, financial performance, etc.

For my project, I intend to adopt as follows:
- The success at project level => project goals = project outcome,
- Persistence of a company in innovation - minimum 2-3 process innovation projects conducted within last 10 years.

I would be very grateful for your opinions about the two criteria outlined above.

P.S. My project will involve incremental innovation only, therefore, the criteria such as no. of issued patents may not apply.

I have some doubts in terms of my selection critieria:
- For example, a project may be successful in regards to the fulfiled objectives but it could have been achieved by trippled costs and delivered late due to its poor management. Obviously, I can also take into account these concerns during company and its projects selection.
- In terms of persistence in innovation. I wonder whether it can be accepted that I have selected 10 years time period, I mean why 10 years and not e.g. 5 or 15 years period. My argument is that most of the innovation projects is conducted within a few years. It seems logical that persistence in innovation means that a company must had to conduct at least 2-3 projects to call itself the persistent innovator. I also intend to back it with proper journal papers.

Please help and share your knowledge on this topic.
Thanks.