Exploring Collaboration in New Product Development

Abstract

This paper discusses the relevant literature on collaboration in product development and proposes a framework for exploring collaboration proneness in development processes. The framework proposes valuable insight into managing collaboration in practice, as it provides an evaluation tool for managers to determine their internal team competences and gaps to be addressed. Furthermore, it enables companies to assess potential NPD partners outside company boundaries. A test on an industrial case demonstrates the applicability of the theoretically derived framework to practice.