Technological Change, Product Strategies and Human Resources: Defining Anglo-German Differences

Relationships between engineers and marketers within new product development

“…British (mean 2.5) and German (mean 3.0) engineers suggesting that integration is better in German organisations than in British ones, thus supporting the observations made in the general literature on German business and organisational culture (Bergen, 1982;Campbell et al, 1990;Parkinson, 1984).…”

“…For the knowledge factor (significance 0.001) the British respondents are strongly in favour (mean 4.00) whereas the German engineers are less strongly in favour (mean 3.62). It would appear that this factor analysis supports, yet again, the notion that the German engineers are more comfortable with their relationship with marketers than their British counterparts (Bergen, 1982;Campbell et al, 1990;Parkinson, 1984). The British engineers, however, are still keen for teamwork to exist between the two functions and for engineers to acquire marketing and management skills and knowledge.…”

“…Perhaps this is due to the perceived status of engineers in Germany being higher than that in Britain (Bessant and Grunt, 1985;Randlesome, 1994), or due to the security German engineers feel as there are "lower levels of marketing professionalism" found in German companies (Simon, 1990). It also gives support to the notion that integration is better in Germany than in the UK (Bergen, 1982;Campbell et al, 1990;Parkinson, 1984). Whilst analysis of the individual variables is interesting, it does not show if the engineers respond to the variables in groups.…”

“…Further, research suggests that there is a higher level of integration between engineering and management in Germany. This is likely to have a positive impact on successful NPD (Bergen, 1982;Campbell et al, 1990;Parkinson, 1984). These studies have, however, tended to focus on co-operation between all functions within an organisation and not specifically the engineering-marketing interface.…”