Communication intensity, goal congruence, and uncertainty in buyer–supplier new product development
基于214个买方-供应商联合新产品开发项目的数据，研究了沟通强度和目标一致性在不同不确定性条件下对项目绩效的影响，发现沟通强度在任务或关系不确定性高时有益、低时有害，目标一致性则始终有益。
Abstract Manufacturers involve suppliers in new product development in order to access knowledge and resources, but these benefits only occur with effective project‐level integration. Adopting a contingency theory view, we develop hypotheses concerning how two integrative devices, intensive communication and congruent goals, influence project performance under various conditions of uncertainty. We test our theoretical model with a sample of 214 buyer–supplier joint new product development projects. Results suggest that communication intensity is positively associated with project performance when either task or relational uncertainty is high, but is also negatively associated with performance when task uncertainty is low. Goal congruence is positively associated with project performance, especially when either task uncertainty is low or relational uncertainty is high. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.