New conceptual framework of cross-functional collaboration for new product design development in global consumer electronics firms

Abstract

I here have been very few studies carried out on enhancing CFC (Cross-functional Collaboration) for the product design development. nevertheless there is a clear consensus among researchers that this issue is a critical one in ne product design development. Besides, almost all of the research work, which attempted to encourage CFC in NPD situations, was carried out focused on the cross-functional team which is the most effective organisation type to encourage collaboration between other functional groups, rather than the functional organisation, which is difficult organisation to facilitate collaboration between other functional groups. On the other hand, there is still no clear evidence which proves that CFC improves the performance of' design development. Nevertheless, this proof is essential premise to support the value of producing the information to improve CFC for product design development. This research attempts to fill in this gap in the deficiency of research. This longitudinal research has been conducted with complementary research methods: a qualitative research and a quantitative research in the field. As the main body of this research, 15 key -decision makers for new product design development were interviewed and 243 questionnaires from eight leading consumer electronics companies in three countries (Korea, Japan. UK) were analysed. In conclusion, firstly, this research has proved there is a plus correlation between the level of CFC and several dimensions of the design development performance of consumer electronics products. Furthermore, a new framework model is developed and proposed after compressing and combining all vital findings of this research work. This developed model presents three major findings of this research. Firstly, the factors affecting CF C for design development of consumer electronics products, secondly, the priority of importance of these factors, and finally, factors directly contributing to design development performance in several dimensions. Overall, the findings of this research help to people what are valuable factors for building CFC climate and what are prior factor in a quandary concerning, where to concentrate their efforts so as to successfully implement their (TV to improve their design development performance. In particular, the findings of this research could further help designers and design managers who lack the experience and knowledge of collaboration situations in the rigid functional organisational boundaries, which many consumer electronics companies face.