Title: The organisational communication role to the cross-functional collaboration on the product development process

Authors: Camila Kolling; Cassiana Maris Lima-Cruz; Janine Fleith de Medeiros

Addresses: Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Accounting Sciences, Universidade de Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, RS 99052-900, Brazil ' Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Accounting Sciences, Universidade de Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, RS 99052-900, Brazil ' Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Accounting Sciences, Universidade de Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, RS 99052-900, Brazil

Abstract: Cross-functional collaboration is one of the decisive factors to the innovation success of new products. However, since the new product development (NPD) demands that different perspectives are considered, organisational communication is one of the fundamental issues for the collaboration happens. Thus, the study objective is to analyse the organisational communication role to the cross-functional collaboration on the NPD process. An exploratory research was performed, with a qualitative and quantitative approach along with managers from industries of distinct sectors. The results pointed that organisational communication is important to the cross-functional collaboration, being able to be complicated mainly by factors like the organisational culture and distinct organisational points of view and favoured through discussion of problems and solutions and formulation of common objectives. Considering the results, we proposed a process model to assist the industries to optimise the cross-functional collaboration on NPD through organisational communication.

Keywords: cross-functional collaboration; inter-functional collaboration; organisational communication; new product development; NPD; innovation; new products.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2022.125673

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2022 Vol.29 No.1, pp.105 - 126

Received: 02 Apr 2020
Accepted: 16 Aug 2020
Published online: 26 Sep 2022 *

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