| For firms to be competitively viable, they must have successful---and often continual---product offerings available in the marketplace. Perpetuity of innovation in the form of new product development requires a capability of fostering creation. Creation in the form of new product development is first about information, learning, and knowledge management, and ultimately about the creation of new knowledge, as is embedded in the new products. The knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm indicates that new knowledge is created within/for the enterprise via the (re)combination of pre-existing individuals' knowledge. Individuals' knowledge is recombined and integrated via 'knowledge integration mechanisms' (KIMs) that allow incorporation of multiple sets of knowledge.;Three knowledge integration mechanisms are conceptually identified from prior literature sources (Explicit Direction, Organizational Routines and Adhocracy). KIMs are antecedents in the theoretical model developed and proposed, wherein specific characteristics of knowledge (uniqueness, tacitness, dynamism) thought to work best with their own respective KIM are considered for their interaction and moderating effects. New product development speed, new product novelty, and new product performance (in-market) are also considered, as consequences in the model.;Marketing Project Managers in Canadian manufacturing firms were surveyed, for a response rate of 29% and 157 complete responses. The measures, items, and scales used in the survey instrument all had precedence in the literature and were borrowed from previous research that had preconfirmed their validity and reliability. The number of hypotheses proposed in this work (26, as part of the model developed), as well as the number of responses possible (157 completed), supported the use of multiple regression analysis over other quantitative methods. The results generally support the model and hypotheses proposed (18 out of 26 hypotheses supported empirically) wherein KIMs do contribute to new product novelty, development speed, and product performance. As well, each of the characteristics of knowledge considered do have variable, moderating effects on the main relationships considered in the model. Generally, there was support for all three main premises proposed regarding KIMs and characteristics of knowledge: 1) that the KIM of explicit direction and knowledge uniqueness would work optimally together, 2) that the KIM of organizational routines and knowledge tacitness would work optimally together, and 3) that the KIM of adhocracy and knowledge dynamism would work optimally together. The theoretical and managerial implications of this work are ultimately considered, as are future research directions.;This work is fundamentally about knowledge creation. As is precedented in the knowledge and KBV literature, this research uses new product development as a proxy for new knowledge development wherein the resultant products are considered the embodiments of newly created knowledge. This research extends existing work within the KBV by considering empirically, specifically, and exhaustively the mechanisms that allow for knowledge integration and thereby creation, as well as the characteristics of knowledge most pertinent to each of the knowledge integration mechanisms identified. Forming the basis for this work, as well as the primary research questions, are the areas that the literature has yet to explore: 1) What are all the possible KIMs? 2) What characteristics of knowledge work best with each KIM toward New Product outcomes (new product novelty, development speed, and performance)? and finally 3) How can the variables pertinent to knowledge creation in new product development teams be assembled in a theoretical model for empirical testing?... |
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