How Functional Diversity Drives Conflict Between Research-and-Development and Sales in New Product Development— A Cross-Industry Examination

摘要

Investigators argue that the sales function should collaborate closely with research-and-development (R&D) in new product development, because it is an important source of market intelligence. However, sales and R&D are particularly diverse functions whose interaction is conducive to disagreement and interpersonal conflict. So far, only little attention has been directed to the challenge how the interaction of sales and R&D in innovation projects can be effectively managed. This study develops and tests a research model that investigates sources of conflict between R&D and sales. We propose that conflict (task vs. relationship conflict) originates from various dimensions of diversity of sales and R&D, such as different orientations (market and long-term orientation), demographic characteristics, and differences in departmental subcultures. However, not all conflict is necessarily detrimental to new product success. Although in common parlance conflict is a much maligned word, there is a well-established conception that it may have both positive and negative facets in innovation endeavors (De Clercq, Thongpapanl, and Dimov 2009). Our study assumes that diversity can lead to both beneficial and deleterious conflict, and aims to provide insight into which type of diversity induces which type of conflict.