Effects of marketing-manufacturing integration on new product development time and competitive advantage

There is a need to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of marketing-manufacturing integration (MMI) in new product development. In this paper we examine the influences of MMI in each of four stages of new product development (NPD) on new product time and success. A path analysis of data collected from 467 completed NPD projects indicates that increased MMI in each stage of product development is respectively associated with greater product competitive advantage, which in turn is associated with higher project return on investment (ROI). Greater MMI is also significantly associated with longer product commercialisation (PC) stages of new product development, but the data indicate little significant relationship between NPD project time and project return on investment. Hence, increased MMI may require added NPD time, but this drawback appears to be outweighed by the added benefits accrued to greater product competitive advantage.