Sales, Marketing, and Research-and-Development Cooperation Across New Product Development Stages: Implications for Success

Abstract

Prior research has identified the integration of marketing with research and development (R&D) as a key success factor for new product development (NPD). However, prior work has not distinguished the sales and marketing functions, even though they are distinctive departments within an organization. Therefore, the authors extend prior research and examine the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on NPD performance across multiple stages of the NPD process. The authors use multiple-informant data from 424 sales, marketing, and R&D managers as well as project leaders of 106 NPD projects to test several hypotheses. The results show that the cooperation between sales and R&D and between sales and marketing has a significant, positive effect on overall NPD project performance beyond marketing-R&D cooperation. The authors also find that the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on overall NPD project performance varies across stages of the NPD process. More specifically, the authors find that sales-R&D cooperation in the concept and product development stages is critical for greater new product success. Sales-marketing cooperation is important in the concept development stage but has surprisingly less impact in the implementation stage.

Processes and integration in the interaction of purchasing and marketing: Considering synergy and symbiosis

“…These are generic functional integration tools, however, and sit alongside a developed literature on marketing and sales integration (Homburg, Jensen, & Krohmer, 2008) and marketing and new product development integration (Ernst, Hoyer, & Rubsaamen, 2010), while purchasing and marketing integration has received little specific attention. The aforementioned special issue on co-management of purchasing and marketing addressed this with specific contributions on purchasing and marketing integration (Gonzales-Zapatero, in press; Matthyssens, in press; Wagner & Eggert, in press; Ziggers & Henseler, in press).…”

“…Operationally, such knowledge is necessary to achieve effective value creation and the perspectives of contributors from outside a function brings new ideas and approaches generating outcomes that are based around solution building rather than operational efficiency (Wind, 2005). Synergistic collaboration occurs generating more effective innovation where multiple functions contribute and ensures maximal delivery of value to the customer (Ernst et al, 2010;Flynn et al, 2010). Central to this process is the ability through cross-functional knowledge of functions to understand and respond to the implications of innovations on other functions.…”

Organizational linkages for new product development: Implementation of innovation projects

“…In this direction, Ernst et al (2010), and Malshe and Biemans (2014) identify the importance of sales and marketing interaction during new product development to underline the need for a strong relationship between sales and marketing to create organizational success (Guenzi & Troilo, 2007; on the perceived effectiveness of marketing/sales relationship during the implementation of innovation projects. The study analyzes how organizational mechanisms, like the amount of shared communication and its quality, affect trust and the relationship of effectiveness between marketing and sales functions.…”

Antecedentes e consequentes da participação do vendedor no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos: proposta de um modelo integrador

“…Independente da posição assumida pelos conflitos no modelo, a Orientação da empresa para inovação em produtos e serviços mostrou ser um fator positivamente influenciador da Participação do vendedor em PDP, indicando que se existe na empresa uma postura estratégica dirigida para o desenvolvimento de novos produtos e serviços ou para modificação / adaptação de produtos e serviços existentes por solicitação dos clientes, isto tenderá a fazer com que os vendedores se engajem mais nesses processos, podendo ser uma fonte de contribuição, conforme mencionado na literatura (CROSS et al, 2001;GORDON et al 1997;JOSHI, 2010;JUDSON et al 2006;MALSHE;BIEMANS, 2014;WEBSTER, 1965 Uma contribuição considerada fronteiriça entre o teórico e o gerencial, é que a amostra pesquisada foi composta exclusivamente de vendedores, situação incomum na literatura, que se preocupa mais com a opinião de gerentes e supervisores de vendas (CROSS et al, 2001;ERNEST;HOYER;RÜBSAAMEN, 2010;GORDON et a., 1997;JUDSON et al, 2009).…”

“…No entanto, poucas dessas pesquisas, ao estudarem a relação Vendas e PDP, tratam a perspectiva do vendedor, que é o profissional diretamente em contato com o cliente (BELTRAMINI, 1988;FU, 2009;LAMBERT;MARMORSTEIN;SHARMA, 1990), a maioria abordando a visão de gerentes e supervisores de vendas, profissionais normalmente mais distantes dos clientes em suas rotinas diárias (CROSS et al, 2001;ERNST;HOYER;RÜBSAAMEN, 2010;GORDON et al, 1997;JUDSON et al, 2009).…”