Title:
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An exploration of the effects of functional integration on performance in new product development
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New product development (NPD) is a process that requires the capability to obtain,
process and interpret large amounts of market, technical, financial and other
information, in order to develop product ideas and evaluate their technical soundness,
manufacturability and economic (market) feasibility. This requires organisations and
individuals to be able to overcome internal differences and barriers built during the
process of differentiation (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967), and implement an NPD process
based on collaboration of structurally separated, yet interdependent, functional units
(especially marketing and R&D). Studies have shown that functional integration is a
critical aspect of today's NPD's activities (e.g. Song, Montoya-Weiss and Schmidt,
1997), while the introduction of structured models of product development -e.g. stagegate
systems- have contributed to increase linking and collaboration in the process
(Cooper, 1990; Clark and Wheelwright, 1993). Recent research, however, suggests that
high integration is not always desirable or achievable, and that its relationship with
other variables might depend on factors such as the stage of the project and product
innovativeness (Griffin and Hauser, 1996; Weerd-Nederhof, 1998). Furthermore, there
is a need to understand how companies and managers involved in NPD activities can
actively promote and encourage integration of functional units during a particular
project. The objective of the present thesis is twofold. First it describes and explores the
means through which functional integration can be achieved in an NPD context.
Second, it explores the relationship between performance in NPD and functional
integration under different conditions of project uncertainty and project stage.
This work used a mixed-method design to guide the collection of qualitative and
quantitative data. Qualitative data is based on 84 semi-structured interviews with people
involved in NPD activities in 30 companies in the UK and the Netherlands. Other
sources of qualitative data included internal company documentation, observation,
computer databases, and companies' web sites. Quantitative data is based on 107
questionnaires completed by project managers working in 47 companies/BUs in the UK
and the Netherlands.
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