Global new product development processes: Preliminary findings and research propositions

This study examines the processes and routines firms employ for developing new global products. Observations from 13 Japanese, American and European m ultinational 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 knowle dge about different product design requirements among overseas markets or p lants is tacit, firms employ cross-national product development teams and u se overseas subsidiaries as sources of new product concepts. Anchoring thes e findings on information processing theory, we develop a set of research p ropositions on global new product development processes and suggest directi ons for future research.