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The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analytic review based on a theoretical framework developed for investigating new product development (NPD) teams in the first two decades of the research stream.

This study contributes to literature by investigating the presence of publication bias and synthesizing correlation effect sizes of 27 factors influencing three NPD team performance dimensions: overall, market-based (e.g. sales, profitability), process-based (e.g. budget adherence, schedule adherence) outcomes. Further, this study presents a path analytical model that uses the aggregate study effects to identify significant drivers of NPD team performance.

First, examination of extant literature shows no publication bias. Next, analyses show that three internal team dynamic variables have the most significant positive effect on overall NPD team performance: team member job satisfaction, cross-functional integration and superordinate identity. For market-based performance, three goal-related contextual factors exert the most positive influence, namely, goal stability, goal clarity and goal support, in respective order. Further, for process-based performance, cross-functional integration’s strong positive effect is followed by team and goal stability. Moreover, physical distance, interpersonal and task conflict have significant negative effects on NPD team performance. Finally, both market- and process-based NPD team performance are significantly influenced by NPD team’s cohesion, which acts a mediator between two contextual factors: physical distance and team tenure.

This meta-analysis contributes to literature by providing a comprehensive model of NPD team performance predictors, their definitions, along with their corresponding effects in predicting performance. While team cohesion is found to be a strong predictor of both market- and process-based performance, future research can examine if too much cohesion has a detrimental effect, especially on market-based performance.

The results assist managers in shifting their priorities to ensure optimal support of NPD teams. For example, team leadership competence externally has a larger effect on overall performance compared to team leadership for internal team dynamics. Hence, team leaders should make sure that they manage the team’s relationships with external parties (e.g. other functional units) with more caution.

This study provides a guiding framework for analyzing NPD team performance as well as identifies and then addresses many knowledge gaps on NPD team performance.

This study examines the motivational processes of charged behavior and collective efficacy driving interdependence and agency in new product development (NPD) teams and the moderating impact of team risk-taking propensity as affective, cognitive and behavioral social processes support team innovation.

Data were collected from 92 NPD teams engaged in B2C and B2B product and service development. Mediating and moderating effects are examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling, referencing social cognitive and collective agency theories as the research framework.

The analysis validates collective self-efficacy and charged behavior as interdependent motivational–affective processes that align cognitive resources and govern team effort toward innovativeness. Teams' risk-taking propensity regulates behavior, and collective efficacy facilitates self-regulated motivational engagement. Charged behavior cultivates the emotional contagion, team identification, cohesion and adaptation required for team functioning. Team potency fosters cohesiveness, while team learning improves adaptability along the innovation journey. The resulting theory asserts that motivational drivers enhance the interplay between cognitive and behavioral processes.

Managers should consider NPD teams as social systems with a capacity for collective agency nurtured through interdependence, which requires collective efficacy and shared competencies to generate motivational purpose and innovativeness. Managers must remain mindful of teams' risk tolerance as regulating the impact of motivational factors on innovativeness.

This study contributes to research on the motivational–affective drivers of NPD charged behavior and collective efficacy as complementary to cognitive and behavioral processes sustaining team innovativeness.

This article is the first in a two‐part discussion of the determinants and performance consequences of concurrent engineering (CE) team usage in organizations. The purpose of this first article is to develop a model of the organizational factors that influence the extent that CE teams are used when developing new products.

To test the model, 2,500 questionnaires were mailed to new product development (NPD) managers from the machinery, computer product, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment manufacturing industries, of which 189 usable questionnaires were returned, for a usable response rate of 7.5 percent. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares.

Results indicate that an innovative organizational climate and complex NPD activities both influence the extent that organizations support functional integration on NPD teams, and this support, in turn, influences the extent that organizations use CE teams. Analyzing the qualitative data using content analysis indicates additional factors influencing CE team usage.

To researchers, this study examines in detail the extent of CE team usage, thus addressing a major gap in the research literature. This study also addresses the concerns of researchers by examining organizational contextual factors.

To NPD managers, this study highlights organizational precursor conditions needed in order for CE teams to be supported in the organizations, specifically complex NPD activities and an innovative organizational climate. By examining these two variables, NPD managers can gauge the likelihood that CE teams will be supported even before they are actually implemented.

This is the second paper in a two‐part discussion of the determinants and performance consequences of concurrent engineering (CE) team usage. In this paper, a model is developed outlining the relationship between the extent of CE team usage and three measures of performance, specifically NPD financial performance, NPD development performance, and communication quality.

To test the model, 2,500 questionnaires were mailed to NPD managers from the machinery, computer product, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment manufacturing industries. Of the 2,500 questionnaires mailed, 189 usable questionnaires were retuned for a usable response rate of 7.5 percent.

Results of performing partial least squares analysis indicate that the frequency of use of CE teams and functional involvement on CE teams influences communication quality, which in turn, influences both NPD financial and development performance.

To researchers of NPD, the major implication of this study is that it highlights possible reasons (e.g. not considering the extent of usage or not including functional involvement or communication quality in their models) why they are obtaining such inconsistent results when examining the relationship between NPD practices and performance. The major limitation of this study is that only CE teams have been selected for investigation or risk the problems associated with developing a very long questionnaire.

To practicing NPD managers, the value of this research is that it highlights that CE teams which do little to improve communication quality will not lead to improvements in NPD performance.

To determine the effects of project management skills, entrepreneurial proclivity, and existing knowledge on team reflexivity and performance of cross‐functional new product development (NPD) team. The moderating roles of team cohesiveness and knowledge practice are also explored.

This study used online questionnaire surveys by inviting 500 R&D team members of NPD from three Science Parks in Taiwan. The survey questionnaires were sent to the representative of R&D team members.

The results indicate that members' project management skills, entrepreneurial proclivity, and existing knowledge have significant impact on team reflexivity and product innovativeness of the NPD project, which then influence NPD performance. Furthermore, NPD team exercising higher levels of team cohesiveness and higher knowledge practice tend to moderate the influence of team reflexivity and product innovativeness on NPD performance.

The use of longitudinal research is suggested to confirm the results of this study. Moreover, other research settings, either different industry or other countries, could increase the generalizability of the findings.

The study has high implications for managers of NPD to recruit qualified team members who have adequate knowledge and strong entrepreneurial proclivity. Moreover, managers should be aware of the moderating role of team cohesiveness and knowledge practices.

The paper determines the antecedents and consequences of team reflexivity and innovativeness among NPD team members. The moderating role of team cohesiveness and knowledge practices are discussed.

Purpose – This research aims to identify various organizational‐level factors influencing support for cross‐functional new product development (NPD) teams. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 2,500 questionnaires where mailed in 2003 to managers of product development from Canadian and US manufacturing organizations operating in the machinery, computer, electronic product, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment manufacturing industrial sectors. A total of 269 usable questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 11.1 percent. Findings – Results of performing regression analysis indicate that the quality of communication between the functional disciplines involved in NPD activities, perceived risks and complexity of using cross‐functional NPD teams, and the complexity of the organization's NPD activities all influence organizational support for cross‐functional NPD teams. Based on the qualitative data, additional reasons why cross‐functional NPD teams may not be supported in organizations are identified and discussed. Research limitations/implications – The major limitation of this study is that the respondents are NPD managers. These managers commented on the extent that support for cross‐functional NPD teams exists at the team, departmental, and senior management levels. Future research should focus on gauging organizational support for cross‐functional NPD teams by directly surveying team members, functional managers, and senior managers. Practical implications – This study identifies various organizational‐level factors influencing support for cross‐functional NPD teams. Originality/value – This research is of value to managers using or implementing cross‐functional teams, as it indicates potential organizational‐level factors that may facilitate or hamper the usage of such teams. To researchers, it provides a starting point in studying the determinants of support for cross‐functional NPD teams, and cross‐functional teams in general.

Although previous studies noted the importance for organizations in establishing an innovation strategy, few have examined innovation orientation as a multidimensional knowledge configuration. Therefore, this study draws on the valuable theoretical underpinnings of the resource-based view and information processing theory to examine the mechanism through which an organization's innovation orientation (IO) and team unlearning (TU) can impact new product development (NPD) success.

A causal model was developed in order to analyze the role of innovation orientation and team unlearning on NPD success. This proposed model and several hypotheses were gauged using data from 255 NPD team members from Taiwanese high-tech and traditional companies.

The results indicate that both IO and TU relate to outcomes. Specifically, this study demonstrates that it is insufficient that firms simply establish the configurations needed to enhance their IO and TU, firms also need to find out the correct mechanism to enhance NPD success. The relationships between IO, TU and NPD success were fully mediated by team information processing.

This report sheds light on the importance of innovation orientation and team unlearning in today's NPD process and uncovers the underlying mechanism through which IO and TU contribute to NPD success. It also offers precise advice for the assessment of management of team information-processing to boost the performance of new products.

This study aims to investigate the role of team problem-solving creativity in new product development (NPD) in the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) in business-to-business firms. This study synthesizes perspectives from NPD, creativity and leadership to examine how work-related factors such as NPD managers’ role ambiguity and individual-related factors such as CEO’s ambidextrous leadership style interact to determine team problem-solving creativity and its effect on new product performance (NPP).

The hypotheses are tested using data from a multi-informant survey of 274 middle-level managers within 137 local BoP manufacturing firms in a sub-Saharan African country.

The results show that an NPD team’s ability to solve problems creatively determines NPP in BoP markets. The findings also show that NPD managers’ role ambiguity has a negative effect on team problem-solving creativity. However, a CEO’s ambidextrous leadership neutralizes the negative impact of role ambiguity on problem-solving creativity.

This study combines three distinct streams of literature, including NPD, creativity and leadership, to explore the antecedents and outcomes of problem-solving creativity. Drawing on creativity and leadership theories, this study reports that the success of creative idea exchanges depends heavily on a supportive environment for NPD team members and minimizing the NPD manager’s role ambiguity.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of acculturation in new product development (NPD) teams in a multicultural working environment. This paper provides recommendations for multinational companies (MNCs) in dealing with problems among team members from different cultures.

Data were collected through 24 in‐depth interviews with local middle‐level managers (e.g. R&D, marketing managers) and expatriates working on NPD projects in MNC subsidiaries located in Thailand. A qualitative method was employed to explore and attain insightful information about the acculturation of local NPD members when working with expatriates.

Results show that local NPD team members may acculturate themselves to foreign work culture when they have regular contact with expatriates during the product development process. The acculturation may also affect the team performance and the relationship among team members. Cultural training programs for local NPD team members are recommended.

Since this qualitative pilot research has a rather small sample size of cases, it limits the ability to generalize the findings. The findings from MNCs subsidiaries may not represent all other cultures of MNCs operating in Thailand.

The findings of this study significantly contribute to MNCs from North America and Asia that develop new products in Thailand. Cultural training programs and frequent and two‐way communications are suggested to increase the familiarity of local employees with the foreign work culture, to develop mutual objectives, and to promote shared interests among multicultural NPD team members.

This study extends the application of acculturation of local NPD team members within a multicultural setting, which has been rarely explored. Theoretically, the findings provide an in‐depth understanding of the local managers' acculturation pattern found in NPD teams. Also, it provides recommendations on how to support the local NPD team members more effectively in adopting critical values of the parent firm's culture so as to achieve NPD tasks facing less miscommunication and improving project performance.