Sharing Knowledge in Integrated Product Development

____________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: Although product development is recognized as knowledge intensive work, we have a limited understanding of its impact on product development process performance. The mechanisms by which knowledge sharing contributes to strategic imperatives such as time-to-market and value to customers is not well understood. Despite increased interest in knowledge sharing in cross-functional teams, there have been few large-scale empirical studies of its efficacy. This paper develops a model that explains how shared knowledge enhances process performance as well as downstream strategic imperatives. In this paper shared knowledge is identified as three types: shared knowledge of customers, shared knowledge of suppliers, and shared knowledge of internal capabilities. This model is tested using a sample of 205 product development projects. Key Word: Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Integrated Product Development _____________________________________________________________________________