In developing country, company which acquire technology from overseas R&D Center is increasing recently. There are many problems in technology transfer from overseas R&D center to recipient country due to difference of culture and proximity.
This study focuses on the communication activities and performance in the project team at overseas R&D center and technology transfer between overseas R&D center and production in home country.
The research questions are as follows:
1. What influences on communication activities between team members in the project team and facilitates communication activities between overseas R&D center and production in home country?
2. What are the relationships between communication activities and new product development performance?
3. What are the barriers of technology transfer between overseas R&D center and production in home country and what are the facilitators for collaboration between them?
Based on the review of related literatures, a research model and hypothese are generated.
34 questionnaires are collected from engineers who paticipated in new product development project and 8 interview data are collected from project leaders in overseas R&D center. And Spearman correlation is used to verify hypotheses.
The major findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, the charactoristics related to project team's nature (team builder role and champion role of project leader, cohesive power of team climate) are significantly correlated with communication activities. And communication activity is significantly correlated with performance of new product development project.
Second, the degree of product design completion is correlated with interdepartmental communication in the stage of mass production transfer. The nature of mass production transfer team(transfer intent, clearness of responsibility and role) is significantly correlated with interdepartmental communication.
Third, the nature of mass production transfer task(senior management's interest, rationality of transfer decision) is significantly correlated with interdepartmental communication. And interdepartmental communication strongly influences on the performance of mass production transfer.
Finally, managerial implications drawn from findings are suggested to help improving technology transfer performance.
