Linking Quality Management Practices and Effective Knowledge Integration to New Product Development (NPD): An Empirical Study of Saudi-firms

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of some quality management practices (cross functional teamwork, employee participation, and reward & recognition) and effective knowledge integration on new product development (NPD). Building upon the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper argues that cross-functional teamwork, employee participation and reward & recognition are three knowledge generation practices that contribute to enhance the performance of the knowledge integration capability. Knowledge integration, in turn, leads to successful new product development. This research employs structural equation modeling to empirically examine the impacts of some quality management practices on new product development, mediated by knowledge integration, using a survey data collected from 167 Saudi firms which are listed at Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul). The findings suggest that the capability of producing new products and / or services in the Saudi firms is positively affected by the cross-functional teamwork, employee participation and reward & recognition. It is also revealed that these three practices are drivers for integration knowledge in the firms.