چارچوب مفهومی تاثیر تیم پروژه NPD و توانمند سازی رهبر در ارتباطات و عملکرد: زمینه موردی اتحاد

New product development (NPD) in an alliance context crosses organizational boundaries and therefore makes team and leader empowerment and communication an ever more important topic for the successful accomplishment of NPD goals. We developed a conceptual model that addresses some key questions: Under what circumstances should the project team and leader be empowered? How much empowerment? And what effects does this have on communication and NPD performance? Using case study research, we developed a conceptual model portraying the impact of NPD project team and leader empowerment in the ‘alliance focal company’ (AFC — the lead company in the alliance) on the communication with a project's strategic partners, and the subsequent effects on project performance. Our model suggests that the efficiency of the development project (shortest, cheapest, and highest quality possible) is contingent upon how well the actual intensity level and the degree of media-richness of communication fit the required ones. Conversely, the actual intensity level and degree of media-richness of communication are enabled by a varying extent of team and leader empowerment, ranging from limited to significant.

Effective communication and information processing are essential to a firm's success (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991 and Mintzberg et al., 1995). Communication has gained ever more importance in today's networked world where new product development (NPD) is being driven by different types of partners and strategic alliances (Badir et al., 2009). These alliance-based business trends have resulted in complex high-tech organizations and development projects that cross company boundaries. In this research, a strategic alliance is a long-term formal relationship established between two or more independent parties (Cheng et al., 2004) to conduct a NPD project. The alliance is led by a “hub firm” (Jarillo, 1988), which sets up the network and is responsible for the entire process of the NPD project — from idea to market — with input from its strategic partners. We refer to this firm as the alliance focal company (AFC), and it is the focus of this study. In an alliance of high-tech strategic partners, NPD is performed by groups and individuals from multiple functions, such as R&D, marketing and manufacturing, which span organizational boundaries. Once an activity is completed, the output is sent to the next function in the process, either within or across company boundaries, so that those responsible can contribute their specialized knowledge and skills to develop the product. This typically requires members of a product development team from different firms to communicate with one another, in order to accomplish their development activities. The key to the success of these alliance-based NPD projects no longer lies solely in improving communication between different functions and units within a firm but also in improving communication between the project's strategic partners. In other words, communication and information processing between the NPD project team members of different partners become as important as they are within firms. The context within which the teams in these high-tech strategic alliances operate is typically characterized by high uncertainty, complexity and inter-organization task interdependence making communication ever more important. While existing research has studied the impact of project team and leader empowerment on NPD project communication, information processing, decision making, development time, innovation and performance within a firm (Badir et al., 2005, Forrester, 2000, Nauman et al., 2010, Tuuli and Rowlinson, 2009 and Xue et al., 2011), project management scholars have paid less attention to the impact of team or leader empowerment on communication within alliance-based NPD projects. Throughout this article, we adopt the project level of analysis, and investigate how, based on its industry and NPD project characteristics, the AFC can (1) identify the required “intensity-level and degree of media-richness” of communication that its NPD project team should have with the project strategic partners to efficiently develop the project, and (2) find out what degree of project team and leader empowerment would most likely enable this required communication. We only investigate the communication activities between the NPD project team of the AFC and the project strategic partners.1 This paper contributes to the literatures on communication, information processing and team management in strategic alliance-based NPD projects, which are characterized by high complexity, uncertainty and inter-organizational task interdependence. It specifically investigates the impact of team and leader empowerment on the communication within high-tech NPD projects conducted with strategic partners.

Effective communication and information processing are essential to a firm's success (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991 and Mintzberg et al., 1995). Communication has gained ever more importance in today's networked world where new product development (NPD) is being driven by different types of partners and strategic alliances (Badir et al., 2009). These alliance-based business trends have resulted in complex high-tech organizations and development projects that cross company boundaries. In this research, a strategic alliance is a long-term formal relationship established between two or more independent parties (Cheng et al., 2004) to conduct a NPD project. The alliance is led by a “hub firm” (Jarillo, 1988), which sets up the network and is responsible for the entire process of the NPD project — from idea to market — with input from its strategic partners. We refer to this firm as the alliance focal company (AFC), and it is the focus of this study. In an alliance of high-tech strategic partners, NPD is performed by groups and individuals from multiple functions, such as R&D, marketing and manufacturing, which span organizational boundaries. Once an activity is completed, the output is sent to the next function in the process, either within or across company boundaries, so that those responsible can contribute their specialized knowledge and skills to develop the product. This typically requires members of a product development team from different firms to communicate with one another, in order to accomplish their development activities. The key to the success of these alliance-based NPD projects no longer lies solely in improving communication between different functions and units within a firm but also in improving communication between the project's strategic partners. In other words, communication and information processing between the NPD project team members of different partners become as important as they are within firms. The context within which the teams in these high-tech strategic alliances operate is typically characterized by high uncertainty, complexity and inter-organization task interdependence making communication ever more important. While existing research has studied the impact of project team and leader empowerment on NPD project communication, information processing, decision making, development time, innovation and performance within a firm (Badir et al., 2005, Forrester, 2000, Nauman et al., 2010, Tuuli and Rowlinson, 2009 and Xue et al., 2011), project management scholars have paid less attention to the impact of team or leader empowerment on communication within alliance-based NPD projects. Throughout this article, we adopt the project level of analysis, and investigate how, based on its industry and NPD project characteristics, the AFC can (1) identify the required “intensity-level and degree of media-richness” of communication that its NPD project team should have with the project strategic partners to efficiently develop the project, and (2) find out what degree of project team and leader empowerment would most likely enable this required communication. We only investigate the communication activities between the NPD project team of the AFC and the project strategic partners.1 This paper contributes to the literatures on communication, information processing and team management in strategic alliance-based NPD projects, which are characterized by high complexity, uncertainty and inter-organizational task interdependence. It specifically investigates the impact of team and leader empowerment on the communication within high-tech NPD projects conducted with strategic partners.