| The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of work integration and knowledge integration in new product development. The first objective of this study is to develop a theoretical framework of work integration and knowledge integration in an integrated product development environment. The second is to test the relationships among the drivers of concurrent engineering, among the drivers of shared knowledge, the relationship of all these constructs with product development performance outcomes, and to test the interaction between work integration and knowledge integration variables on the sound theory and standardized measures developed in the research. Finally, the last objective of this dissertation is to advance the theory of work integration and knowledge integration in product development.; To develop a survey instrument, an extensive literature review was performed along with extensive in depth interviews with practitioners and academicians to gain brevity as well as to establish face and content validity. A total of ten hypotheses were established to test relationships among work integration and knowledge integration variables in product development performance. A pilot study was later conducted to achieve reliability, purification, and convergent validity. Finally a large scale survey was then conducted from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Using mail and web responses, a total of 171 usable responses were received. The large scale study was evaluated through structural equation modeling methodology using AMOS.; Results indicate that both work integration and knowledge integration are important aspects of product development performance. However of these two forms of integration the latter, knowledge integration seems to be the major driver of development success. Two bridges were found linking these aspects of work and knowledge integration. The first was the use of a heavyweight manager which was a significant driver of the level of team vision for the project. Additionally a second bridge was the level of concurrent engineering which was a significant positive drive of the level of shared knowledge for the project. Following these results, future recommendations and discussions were raised for future research. |
