Spurring Cross‐Functional Integration for Higher New Product Performance: A Group Effectiveness Perspective*

Spurring integration among functional specialists so they collectively create successful, or high‐performing, new products is a central interest of innovation practitioners and researchers. Firms are increasingly assembling cross‐functional new product development (NPD) teams for this purpose. However, integration of team members' divergent orientations and expertise is notoriously difficult to achieve. Individuals from distinct functions such as design, marketing, manufacturing, and research and development (R&D) are often assigned to NPD teams but have contrasting backgrounds, priorities, and thought worlds. If not well managed, this diversity can yield unproductive conflict and chaos rather than successful new products. Firms are thus looking for avenues of integrating the varied expertise and orientations within these cross‐functional teams. The aim of this study is to address two important and not fully resolved questions: (1) does cross‐functional integration in NPD teams actually improve new product performance; and if so, (2) what are ways to strengthen integration? The study began by developing a model of cross‐functional integration from the perspective of the group effectiveness theory. The theory has been used to explain the performance of a wide range of small, complex work groups; this study is the first application of the theory to NPD teams. The model developed from this theory was then tested by conducting a survey of dual informants in 206 NPD teams in an array of U.S. high‐technology companies. In answer to the first research question, the findings show that cross‐functional integration indeed contributes to new product performance as long conjectured. This finding is important in that it highlights that bringing together the skills, efforts, and knowledge of differing functions in an NPD team has a clear and coveted payoff: high‐performing new products. In answer to the second question, the findings indicate that both intra‐ (or internal) and extra‐ (or external) team factors contribute and codetermine cross‐functional integration. Specifically, social cohesion and superordinate identity as internal team factors and market‐oriented reward system, planning process formalization, and managerial encouragement to take risks as external team factors foster integration. These findings underscore that spurring integration requires addressing the conditions inside as well as outside NPD teams. These specialized work groups operate as organizations within organizations; recognition of this in situ arrangement is the first step toward better managing and ensuring rewards from team integration. Based on these findings, managerial and research implications were drawn for team integration and new product performance.     

The Image Realism Effect: The Effect of Unrealistic Product Images in Advertising

Many advertisements use unrealistic images of products (e.g., hand drawings, digital illustrations, rotoscoped animation) instead of actual product images. However, while unrealistic product images are widely used in advertisements, little is known about their possible impact on product evaluation. We propose that because products in unrealistic images look unconsumable or unusable, unrealistic product images (1) suppress consumers’ mental simulation of consuming or using those products and (2) increase uncertainty in the judgment of these products’ characteristics. As a result, unrealistic images attenuate the judgment of a product’s characteristics (both benefits and drawbacks). That is, the same characteristics are judged less intensely when a product is presented as an unrealistic image instead of a realistic image. Through seven studies, we demonstrate this effect for food items (e.g., bread, cupcakes, hamburgers, and chips) and durable goods (e.g., automobiles), finding support for the underlying processes. We further demonstrate that the impact of unrealistic images is not restricted to product evaluation but also extends to actual consumption.     

The Ethical Challenges of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing

Genetic testing is currently subject to little oversight, despite the significant ethical issues involved. Repeated recommendations for increased regulation of the genetic testing market have led to little progress in the policy arena. A 2005 Internet search identified 13 websites offering health-related genetic testing for direct purchase by the consumer. Further examination of these sites showed that overall, biotech companies are not providing enough information for consumers to make well-informed decisions; they are not consistently offering genetic counseling services; and some sites even offer tests with little evidence of clinical value. This article aims to raise company and consumer awareness about the ethical concerns surrounding the direct-to-consumer marketing of health-related genetic tests. It also suggests ways that biotech companies can bring their services to the public in an ethically responsible manner, without increased regulatory oversight. Submitted for the Special Issue on Ethical Issues in Biotechnology.     

Customer positivity and participation in services: an empirical test in a health care context

Many service interactions require customers to actively participate, yet customers often do not participate at levels that optimize their outcomes, particularly in health care. To gain insight into how customers shape a service experience with highly uncertain outcomes, we construct a model on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. The model is used to empirically assess how situation-specific emotions and customer participation during a health care service experience affect perceptions of the service provider. The model is tested using data from 190 medical clinic customers. Consistent with theory, results reveal that as customers’ relative affect levels become more positive, levels of participation increase as well. In turn, higher levels of positivity and participation improve customer perceptions of the quality of the service provider and satisfaction with the co-produced service experience. Implications of this research focus managers on designing services to help clients manage their emotions in ways that facilitate positivity and participation and thus improve service perceptions.     

Small Business Growth in the Short Run

This paper examines the determinants of short run employment growth in very small firms in the Services sector. The study shows evidence of non linearities in the growth-size relationship, and it is argued that these non linearities reflect the short run constraints that small firms face in adjusting to demand shocks. The paper also suggests that there are other systematic influences on growth apart from size. The paper draws on survey evidence from the Northern Region of the United Kingdom.     

服务补救悖论产生的条件:"应该期望"的作用

This paper proposes a theoretical framework which applies concepts of “will expectation” and “should expectation” to exploring the effects of service recovery on customers’ post-recovery satisfaction. The relationship among customers’ perceptions of service recovery and their different expectations for service recovery will determine the probability of customers’ post-recovery satisfaction exceeding their pre-failure satisfaction (service recovery paradox, SRP). Only when perceptions are higher than both will and should expectations, SRP is much likely to occur. In other cases, it will be difficult to have SRP. We extend this theory to dynamic process. The proposed theory could explain the conflicting findings of previous studies about SRP. Results of exploratory studies provide empirical support for our theory in the static case. Managerial implications and further research direction are also discussed.     

Analyzing fluctuating unit census for timely staffing intervention

A computer information system, which can provide cost-saving measures useful in adequately allocating nursing staff in the face of decreasing patient stays, increasing patient admissions and discharges, and the unexpected transfers surrounding busy nursing units, is explored.     

Using Student Generated Codes of Conduct in the Classroom to Reinforce Business Ethics Education

This paper presents four different contexts in which students practiced implementing business ethics. Students were required to develop Codes of Conduct/Codes of Ethics as a classroom exercise. By developing these codes, students can improve their understanding of how and why codes of conduct are developed, designed, and implemented in the workplace. Using the three-phase content analysis process (McCabe et al.: 1999, The Journal of Higher Education 70(2), 211–234), we identify a framework consisting of 10 classifications that can be used to assess learning outcomes in embedded ethics education. By analyzing the different content within each classification, instructors were able to gain a better understanding of differing application of ethical principles. This analysis indicates that there needs to be more research on codes of conduct for smaller units within an organization and more integration of work group codes of conduct into the business curriculum.