Improvement of CSCW software implementation in NPD: the CAM mechanism for a better adoption by users

Abstract

Cooperation between disseminated actors is a key factor in improving new product development (NPD) performance. In the last years, numerous CSCW software applications have been introduced in the industry to support NPD with a low success rate. This is partly due to the limited insight of the organisational and human factors influencing user motivation during the first stages of CSCW software implementation. This research suggests that users adopt more rapidly those features of CSCW software with whom they are more familiar and that the adoption of other features of the application is reinforced by the various links connecting them with the preferred feature. We propose a CSCW integration protocol called the 'catching module mechanism' (CAMM) which exploits user's inclination towards a particular feature of a CSCW application by training them on that same feature. The CAMM was tested in the NPD context of Saint-Gobain Glass.