An anlysis of the use of extrafunctional information by R&D and marketing personnel: Review and model

Successful technological innovation requires contributions from both technologists and marketers. Each group contributes information to the other, making the eventual use of this extrafunctional information a concern. In this article, Rudy Moenaert and William Souder report the findings of explanatory research conducted in Belgium and present a model to describe essential elements of this process. They argue that the value of extrafunctional information is determined by channel, message, source and receiver attributes. Further, this value is thought to vary throughout the stages of the innovation process and also to depend on organizational characteristics such as formalization, centralization, climate and the type of project structure.