New product internal performance and market performance: Evidence from Spanish firms regarding the role of trust, interfunctional integration, and innovation type

This study examines the influence of the organizational climate in the marketing-R&D relationship during the new product development (NPD) process on new product performance. Two key variables-trust and interfunctional integration-serve to measure this interfunctional climate. This article distinguishes between internal and external success, such that three dimensions-"met cost goals," "met time goals," and "product advantage"-represent dimensions of internal success, whereas a market dimension represents external success. Furthermore, this research determines whether the type of innovation, in terms of newness, moderates relationships among these variables. According to surveys of R&D directors from 178 innovative Spanish firms that introduced 345 products, (1) trust is positively associated with interfunctional integration; (2) firms in which interfunctional integration exists obtain better cost, time, and product performance; (3) each dimension of internal success is positively associated with greater market success; and (4) newness moderates the intensity of the positive association between the met time goals and market success variables. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.