As product innovation is a multidisciplinary process, the functional interfaces are very important to the new product outcome. Especially, R＆D/Marketing and R＆D/Production interfaces (integration) are known to be the most critical ones.
The main objectives of this thesis are to examine ;
1) the factors that affect the degree of integration required between thoses parties (i.e. the answers to how much integration is required.)
2) the factors that affect the degree of integration achieved between thoses parties (i.e. the answers to how much integration is achieved.)
3) the relationship between the degree of integration and the new product outcome.
After reviewing the relevant literatures, the research model explaining the key questions was developed and 7 hypotheses were derived. The degree of integration between departments included "the degree of communication" and "the degree of support".
Data were collected from 49 firms through in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The statistical methods used to test those hypotheses were Pearson correlation, Kendall's tau, t-test, and MDA (Multiple Discriminant Analysis).
The major findings of this study are as follows ;
1) The degree of integration required acts as contingency variable between the degree of integration achieved and new product outcome.
2) There exists close relationship between R&D/Marketing integration and new product's commercial success, and between R&D/Production integration and new product's technical success.
3) Environmental uncertainty, product obsolescence rate, new product strategy are the influencing factors of integration required, and organizational structure, top management support, integrator's role are the influencing factors of integration achieved.
