Is collaboration a panacea for product innovation in turbulent environments?

In new product development (NPD) literature, product innovation has represented the focal point of competitive advantage for many firms. In order to achieve product innovation, firm must continuously generate, disseminate, and utilize new knowledge to their NPD activities. However, knowledge and resources are often widely diffused in an organization. This study focuses on the relationship between cross-functional collaboration and new product performance in the firms' NPD process. As previous studies indicate that knowledge integration mechanisms (KIMs) mediates the relationship between cross-functional collaboration and new product performance, this study suggests that the magnitude of the mediating effect of KIMs varies with the level of environment context. Authors analyze a sample drawn from Taiwanese manufacturing firms. The results show that the mediating effect of KIMs is high when firms face low level of competitive intensity or high level of technological turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]