Knowledge integration in IPPD project: role of shared project mission, mutual trust, and mutual influence

Abstract

Project integration is an important management issue related to product development performance outcomes. Design, development, production, and commercialization of new products and services require a project team's ability to acquire and integrate different knowledge bases of internal capabilities, customers, and suppliers. A literature gap exists regarding critical drivers of knowledge integration and shared knowledge in product development projects that needs to be identified and scientifically validated. Based on goal setting, social exchange, and information processing theories, the current study identifies antecedents of knowledge integration in terms of a shared project mission, mutual trust, and mutual influence, and investigates key relationships among these antecedents to determine the effect of knowledge integration on integrated product and process development (IPPD) project outcomes. Proposed hypothetical relationships among these constructs were tested on primary data collected from 191 respondents (OEM project managers and team members, suppliers, and customers) from IPPD projects from the U.S. automotive industry. With regards to the antecedents of knowledge integration in IPPD projects, our results indicate a statistically significant positive association between shared project mission, mutual trust, mutual influence and knowledge integration. Further, our results indicate a positive relationship between knowledge integration and performance outcomes measured in terms of IPPD project success and IPPD product success. Our results also indicate a partial mediating effect of mutual trust and mutual influence between the relationships of shared project mission and knowledge integration. Discussion of our empirical results, limitations, and recommendation for future studies in the area of knowledge integration in the area of IPPD projects are also provided.