Abstract
The relationship between marketing and new product development (NPD) is of great significance. It has been widely accepted that it also affects the success of the project or product to a large extent. But yet, this integration is not an easy task and presents lots of challenges to an organization. One of the major barriers is considered to be differences in the perceptions of marketing and NPD employees about each others’ tasks and the way they are supposed to cooperate. The study described in this paper is aimed at diagnosing these differences for a particular software products organization. The study has tried to capture these differences for integration behaviors between marketing and new product development (NPD) employees engaged in software product development. The study revealed that there was a significant difference between perception of marketing and new product development (NPD) employees over the current level of information flow from marketing to NPD as well the improvement required in the same. The priorities of marketing and NPD employees for improvement also seem to be quite different which is a serious concern as it can lead to lack of concerted effort in a particular direction. The paper describes these findings on the integration behaviours between marketing and NPD employees.
Highlights
For any product firm, new product development (NPD) is the most critical activity in the entire value chain
The aim of this paper is to diagnose the status of integration behaviours between marketing and NPD within the software product development team of a large global software services organization
Our study finds stark differences in the ranks of marketing and NPD personnel
Summary
New product development (NPD) is the most critical activity in the entire value chain. NPD is a complex process needing cooperation between different functions. The functions involved in NPD are R&D, design, manufacturing and marketing, where NPD per se occurs somewhere between design and manufacturing. Coordination and communication between these functions is a challenge due to individual differences in the educational background and training of employees. Challenges are accentuated at different stages of the NPD life cycle. Employees are aware of these challenges, they find it difficult to communicate and coordinate. Other than individual differences in the technical backgrounds, poor permeability in the Journal of Technology Management for Growing Economies Vol 1 No 2
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have