Global New Product Development Processes: Preliminary Findings and Research Propositions

Abstract

This study examines the processes and routines firms employ for developing new global products. Observations from 13 Japanese, American and European multinational companies reveal that global new product development processes vary in terms of the involvement of overseas subsidiaries in project teams and the generation of new product concepts. In particular, when the knowledge about different product design requirements among overseas markets or plants is tacit, firms employ cross‐national product development teams and use overseas subsidiaries as sources of new product concepts. Anchoring these findings on information processing theory, we develop a set of research propositions on global new product development processes and suggest directions for future research.