Title: R&D and marketing integration in Taiwan's IT industry

Authors: Louis Y.Y. Lu, Chyan Yang

Addresses: Department of Business and Administration, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road, Chung-Li, Taoyuan 320, Taiwan. ' Institute of Business and Management, National Chiao Tung University, 4F, No. 114, Sec. 1, Chung-Hsiao West Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Abstract: Taiwan|s IT (information technology) industry has achieved outstanding performance over the last two decades. However, no prior research had been dedicated to the NPD (new product development) project of Taiwan|s IT industry. This study explored the actual R&D and marketing integration situation in Taiwanese IT firms. The results could be a good reference for those developing countries which are struggling to enhance their national competitiveness. This study found that the intangible perception of R&D-marketing integration has a higher impact on the actual achievement of integration than any other tangible integrating mechanism. Formalisation is the most effective tangible integrating mechanism to enhance R&D-marketing integration, because it clearly defined the NPD process. Joint reward system, informal social network, and job rotation significantly impact the actual achievement of R&D-marketing integration.

Keywords: R&D-marketing integration; cross-functional cooperation; new product development; NPD; Taiwan; IT industry; job rotation; informal social network; joint reward; formalisation; marketing; research and development; information technology; developing countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2005.006404

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2005 Vol.4 No.1, pp.68 - 81

Published online: 03 Mar 2005 *

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