Purpose: The understanding of the later stage (i.e. the exploitation phase) in the new product development (NPD) process by companies from emerging markets is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to address this lack and, by drawing upon a data set from Turkish firms, explore how different factors affect the exploitation phase of the NPD process. Design/methodology/approach: Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were carried out on a sample of 671 Turkish firms operating in five industries (i.e. information and communication technologies, biomedical, machinery, chemical and plastic, and food and beverage) in the Izmir region (Turkey) to test the hypotheses. Findings: Results reveal major differences regarding human capital, leadership, marketing capabilities, and business and institutional networks in terms of the commercialization of newly developed products in domestic and international markets. Originality/value: By focusing on the exploitation stage, this paper extents the growing research efforts to study the NPD process of companies in emerging economies other than China by using primary data from Turkey.