Knowledge Transfer Barriers Between Research and Development and Marketing Groups Within Taiwanese Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise High-Technology New Product Development Teams

This article reports on efforts to explore barriers to the transfer of knowledge from provider to seeker and the role of knowledge management strategies during the new product development (NPD) period. The study used the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) framework from Hasan and Gould (2001) to examine the cross-functional knowledge creation process and details surrounding the concept of stickiness (Szulanski, 1996). Strategies we observed can be categorized as being classical or processual oriented (Whittington, 1993). We describe how NPD teams can reduce barriers by aligning strategies in the four knowledge-creation steps: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. This CHAT framework was verified on the basis of samples from 107 Taiwanese NPD teams. Results show that the barriers differed among stages within the NPD period. During the transfer process, the processual strategy reduced barriers to knowledge transfer during the planning, developing, and commercialization stages of the NPD period. In contrast, the classical strategy was shown only to have a positive effect during the marketing stage. Survey results also showed that the highly formalized communication model and periodic meetings advocated by Song and colleagues (Song, Sabrina, & Zhao, 1996; Song, van der Bji, & Weggeman, 2005) and Ingelgard, Roth, Sham, and Styhre (2002) were gradually replaced by bounded transfer and a less formalized approach. These preliminary results suggest that if team leaders can use classical and processual strategies in real time, the barriers to the transfer of knowledge from provider to seeker in the four steps of the NPD period can be effectively reduced. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.