How inter- and intra-organisational coordination affect product development performance: the role of slack resources

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enable a better understanding of the influences of alliance coordination (i.e. inter-organisational coordination) and interfunctional coordination (i.e. intra-organisational coordination) on product development performance. Design/methodology/approach – The current study tests a posited research model and its hypotheses using the data from Taiwan's electronics industry. A survey of 159 senior executives is analyzed using a partial least squares approach. The analytic result shows that slack resources may link alliance coordination and interfunctional coordination to two product development performance metrics (i.e. product innovativeness and product development speed). Findings – This investigation reveals that both alliance coordination and interfunctional coordination positively affect product development performance, not only directly but also indirectly, through the existence of slack resources they help engender. In addition, it also finds that interfunctional coordination positively relates to alliance coordination. Practical implications – The current research provides additional knowledge regarding the associations among alliance coordination, interfunctional coordination and product development performance. This knowledge would be useful for practitioners to achieve a superior product development performance. Moreover, this research articulates the managerial implications of the link between interfunctional coordination and alliance coordination for product development executives. Originality/value – This empirical study tests an integrative model (which is one of only a few to incorporate slack resources) to explain how different types of coordination (i.e. inter- and intra-organisational coordination) may influence product development performance. Moreover, this empirical research provides initial evidence on the association between interfunctional coordination and alliance coordination.