The Concerns of Innovating New Product Development Process in High Tech Companies: Evidence from Taiwan

Abstract

The high-tech companies in Taiwan began to improve and innovate their new product development (NPD) process since late 1980s. However, it is found that even if companies desire to strategically innovate their NPD process, for some companies, it is difficult to effectively implement it. This paper aims to explore why it is difficult in Taiwan for companies to innovate and implement their NPD processes. We use interview and questionnaire survey method to conduct our research. According to the result from our research, there is no significant difference in company size and R&D team member's educational background regarding to how much the R&D team member supports the innovation and improvement of NPD process. Aside from that, the result implies that the cost of NPD and concerns of multi-tasking in cross-functional team are the major concerns for rejecting the innovation of NPD process. The study provides implications for R&D team managers to deal with the implementation of innovating the NPD process in terms of the cost in the process and the pressure within team members.