The impact of empowerment on speed in new product development: The role of uncertainty

We investigated the relationship between team empowerment and team performance under different conditions and types of uncertainty. In a study of 212 New Product Development (NPD) projects we found an overall positive relationship between team empowerment and speed-to-market. We then examined this relationship under different conditions and types of uncertainty. We distinguished uncertainty, arising from two sources: technological novelty and technological turbulence. We found that technological turbulence but not technological novelty moderated the empowerment-speed relationship. And we also found that the relationship between empowerment and speed-to-market was a u-shaped function under conditions of low uncertainty whether the source was novelty or turbulence. In contrast, when uncertainty was high the empowerment-speed relationship differed depending upon the source of the uncertainty. Under conditions of high technological novelty a linear relationship between empowerment and speed was found, but under conditions of high technological turbulence the relationship was reverse u-shaped curvilinear. Our findings indicate that newness and rate of change are two distinct dimensions of uncertainty with potentially different implications. A contingency-oriented view of NPD practices was discussed.