How Knowledge Integration Mechanisms Affect Product Innovation in the NPD Process

Purpose: This study tries to examine how a company utilizes knowledge integration mechanisms (KIMs) to achieve the success of product innovation in a new product development (NPD) process. Research questions: (1) How KIMs affect new product performance in the NPD process? (2) Is the effect of KIMs on performance different for developing products with different level of product advantage? Design: This study forms a mediation model to examine that knowledge integration capability (KIC) mediates the effect of KIMs on new product performance, and then forms a moderated mediation model to examine the moderating effect of product advantage on this mediating relationship. Methodology: The hierarchical regression is used to examine 128 Taiwan’s manufacturing firms. This study follows Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure to examine the mediation effect, and follows Muller, Judd, and Yzerbyt’s (2005) steps to examine the moderated mediation effect. Findings: KIC positively and completely mediates the effect of KIMs on new product performance. The mediating effect of KIC is strong when the level of product advantage is low. Research limitations: This study only examines the relationship with a cross-sectional data. The generalizability of the findings is limited. This study merely examines product advantage as a moderator in the relationship. Research implications: The use of KIMs is not a sufficient condition for product innovation but the integration capability is the key driver of product innovation. For developing product with less product advantage, the mediating effect of knowledge integration capability is stronger. Practical implications: Although KIC converts the effect of KIMs on new product performance, but its effect varies as a function of product advantage. The view implies that by failing to consider the KIC’s moderated-mediating role, managers may have reached an overly optimistic view on the effect of KIMs on product innovation.

[1]  Irene Henriques,et al.  Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry , 2005 .

[2]  H. Gatignon,et al.  Strategic Orientation of the Firm and New Product Performance , 1997 .

[3]  E. Hultink,et al.  The Impact of Market Orientation, Product Advantage, and Launch Proficiency on New Product Performance and Organizational Performance , 2004 .

[4]  M. Parry,et al.  The Determinants of Japanese New Product Successes , 1997 .

[5]  Cornelia Dröge,et al.  Effect of just-in-time purchasing relationships on organizational design, purchasing department configuration, and firm performance , 1997 .

[6]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  Rebecca M. J. Wells.  The Product Innovation Process: Are Managing Information Flows and Cross-Functional Collaboration Key? , 2008 .

[8]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[9]  R. Calantone,et al.  The Impact of Market Knowledge Competence on New Product Advantage: Conceptualization and Empirical Examination , 1998 .

[10]  Sanjay Sharma,et al.  The Influence of Stakeholders on the Environmental Strategy of Service Firms: The Moderating Effects of Complexity, Uncertainty and Munificence , 2008 .

[11]  Robert W. Ruekert,et al.  Marketing's Interaction with Other Functional Units: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Evidence , 1987 .

[12]  Alain Pinsonneault,et al.  A Model of Organizational Integration, Implementation Effort, and Performance , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[13]  R. Cooper,et al.  The Impact of Product Innovativeness on Performance , 1991 .

[14]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments. , 1984 .

[15]  David M. Szymanski,et al.  Why Some New Products are More Successful than Others , 2001 .

[16]  Frances J. Milliken.  Three Types of Perceived Uncertainty About the Environment: State, Effect, and Response Uncertainty , 1987 .

[17]  R. Langlois.  Transaction-cost Economics in Real Time , 1992 .

[18]  Gary L. Frazier,et al.  Outcome-Based and Behavior-Based Coordination Efforts in Channel Relationships , 1996 .

[19]  C. Judd,et al.  When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  Kressel,et al.  Competing for the Future , 2007 .

[21]  Julian Birkinshaw,et al.  Special Issue: Knowledge, Knowing, and Organizations: Knowledge as a Contingency Variable: Do the Characteristics of Knowledge Predict Organization Structure? , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[22]  Richard P. Bagozzi,et al.  Assessing Construct Validity in Organizational Research , 1991 .

[23]  John Hulland,et al.  Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies , 1999 .

[24]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[25]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[26]  R. Grant.  Chapter 8 – Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 1999 .

[27]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Resolving the Capability–Rigidity Paradox in New Product Innovation , 2005 .

[28]  Joseph L. Badaracco,et al.  The knowledge link , 1990 .

[29]  Hélène Sicotte,et al.  Integration mechanisms and R&D project performance☆ , 2000 .

[30]  Sanjay Sharma.  Managerial Interpretations and Organizational Context as Predictors of Corporate Choice of Environmental Strategy , 2000 .

[31]  E. Autio,et al.  Effects of Age at Entry, Knowledge Intensity, and Imitability on International Growth , 2000 .

[32]  Jiann-Chyuan Wang,et al.  External technology acquisition and firm performance: A longitudinal study , 2008 .

[33]  H. Ernst,et al.  How Teamwork Matters More as Team Member Dispersion Increases , 2007 .

[34]  R. Cooper,et al.  0 0 0 0 An Investigation into the New Product Process : Steps , Deficiencies , and Impact , 1986 .

[35]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Tools for inventing organizations: toward a handbook of organizational processes , 1993, [1993] Proceedings Second Workshop on Enabling Technologies@m_Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises.

[36]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[37]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[38]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  An exploratory analysis of the impact of market orientation on new product performance a contingency approach , 1995 .

[39]  Joseph M. Bonner,et al.  Selecting influential business-to-business customers in new product development: Relational embeddedness and knowledge heterogeneity considerations , 2004 .

[40]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[41]  James M. Hulbert,et al.  Profiles of Product Innovators Among Large U.S. Manufacturers , 1992 .

[42]  R. Sitgreaves.  Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). , 1979 .

[43]  Jonathan Nook,et al.  ["A Model for New Product Development: An Empirical Test"] , 2007 .

[44]  Roger J. Calantone,et al.  Decomposing Product Innovativeness and Its Effects on New Product Success , 2006 .

[45]  R. Friedrich.  In Defense of Multiplicative Terms In Multiple Regression Equations , 1982 .

[46]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Market Knowledge Dimensions and Cross-Functional Collaboration: Examining the Different Routes to Product Innovation Performance , 2007 .

[47]  Regina C. McNally,et al.  Product Innovativeness Dimensions and Their Relationships with Product Advantage, Product Financial Performance, and Project Protocol , 2010 .

[48]  Gilbert A. Churchill.  A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[49]  Shanthi Gopalakrishnan,et al.  The impact of firm size and age on knowledge strategies during product development: a study of the drug delivery industry , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[50]  C. B. Schoonhoven.  Problems with contingency theory: testing assumptions hidden within the language of contingency "theory.". , 1981, Administrative science quarterly.

[51]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences , 1993 .

[52]  Gregory N. Stock,et al.  Creating Dynamic Capability: The Role of Intertemporal Integration, Knowledge Retention, and Interpretation , 2006 .

[53]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .