Inter-departmental collaboration and new product development success: a study on the collaboration between marketing and R&D in Spanish high-technology firms

This research paper presents an analysis model formed by 12 hypotheses containing predictions about the influence that collaboration between the R&D and marketing departments will have on new product development success. The hypotheses also analyse how different variables related to the organisation's structure, work climate and business context affect the perception and development of the collaboration between these two departments. The model's contingent approach along with the joint study of interrelated variables; thus, allows us to make a significant contribution to the issue under analysis. The hypotheses have been verified empirically with a sample of 104 Spanish firms belonging to various high-technology activities. The results obtained support the proposed hypotheses and highlight the relevant role of variables related to organisational climate as opposed to that of variables associated with organisational structure. The influence of business context factors has also proved to be important for final results.