Information Systems as a Reference Discipline for New Product Development1

Baskerville and Myers (2002) recently suggested that the information systems (IS) field has “come of age” and that it can now serve as a reference discipline for other fields. In this article, the discourse about their vision is extended by considering the potential for the IS field to contribute to new product development (NPD) research. It is argued that the rapid infusion of information technology (IT) along four dimensions of product development—process management, project management, information and knowledge management, and collaboration and communication—raises several important NPD research issues. These issues could be addressed by drawing from extant theories and models in the IS field. By employing NPD as the context, other issues that underlie the new role envisioned for the IS field are also identified.