How Involving More Functional Areas Within a Firm Affects the New Product Process

Effective new product development decisions are often based on information obtained from multiple functional areas in the organization, making effective communications an important part of successful development efforts. Linda Rochford and William Rudelius examine the effects on new product performance of obtaining information from multiple functional areas during the stages of the new product development process. In addition, they explore the effects of information sharing among functional areas on new product performance. Results suggest that a surprisingly large number of functional areas in the medical products firms in the study do not contribute or use information in many of the new product development stages. However, for several stages of the new product process, obtaining information from more functional areas and sharing information among more functional areas has a positive impact on new product performance.