The primary purpose of this dissertation was to empirically test the relationship between logistics involvement in new product development and improvements in new product development project performance and logistics performance. A logistics involvement new product model was developed that contained seven first order constructs: environmental uncertainty, improving information technology, time and quality based competition, global factors, cross-functional integration, new product development project performance, and logistics performance; and two second order constructs, logistics functional salience and logistics involvement.; The research design incorporated an e-mail survey methodology where 1430 logistics executives from American companies were asked to complete a four page survey on a completed new product development project. Structural equation modeling was used to test the statistical validity of the model and related hypothesis. The collected survey data supported six of the 10 hypotheses. Both project performance and logistics performance were found to have improved with the inclusion of logistics in new product development prior to launch. In addition, this dissertation identified environmental factors, such as improving information technology and environmental certainty, lead to greater logistics functional salience within the firm. Additionally, the overall fit of logistics involvement in new product development was supported by a comparative fit index (CFI) of .9074.
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