Front-End Practices and Human Resource Management in the Product Development Process: Empirical Analysis of Development Outcomes

M5

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between front-end product development practices and product development performance by using comprehensive questionnaire survey of the product development practices of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean firms in manufacturing and software industries. On front-end product development practices, we focus on information gathering on markets and technologies, the degree of contribution of different departments to front-end practice, and mode of communication among employees and downstream development process teams. Furthermore, we analyze the interaction effects these front-end product development practices and human resource management, especially, monetary and nonmonetary incentives. The following results are obtained. First, a larger number of sources of external information associated with greater provision of non-pecuniary incentives improve development outcomes in terms of QCD（quality, cost, and delivery）, customer satisfaction, and sales. Second, stronger organizational cohesion measured by smoothness of communication, associated with greater provision of non-pecuniary incentives, also improve the development outcomes in terms of QCD, customer satisfaction, and sales. Third, better communication between employees responsible for market and product development associated with greater provision of non-pecuniary incentives improve development outcomes regarding QCD and customer satisfaction.