Cross-functionality and charged behavior of the new product development teams in Taiwan's information technology industries

This paper examines how cross-functionality and charged behavior influence new product development (NPD) project performance of product development teams. Through literature review and questionnaires completed by 133 NPD teams at information technology (IT) firms in Taiwan, this paper determined that NPD project performance is positively correlated with cross-functionality and charged behavior, and the relationship between charged behavior and project performance is positively moderated by innovation degree. Additionally, cross-functionality is negatively correlated with charged behavior. This paper contributes to team innovation literature by examining the effect of cross-functionality on charged behavior at a team level revealing that when innovation is enhanced, the effect of employee attitudes and behaviors on development performance is stronger than the effect of functional diversity. This indicates that senior managers and team leaders must manage effectively personal communication that is useful for recognizing and reconciling their different perspectives and understanding each other to generate a sense of commitment, joy, excitement, and cooperative behavior. We recommend that future research utilize different data sources (e.g., team members, external managers, and even customers) and other “objective” measures of performance, including profits, to examine the effects of cross-functionality and charged behavior on new service development performance. This is then used to assist scholars and IT industries in developing innovation management strategies.