New Product Development: Usage effect of Information systems on Customer-Supplier collaboration success

Abstract

This thesis aim to investigate on how companies collaboration success in New Product Development (NPD) context. The study was conducted on projects made in nine countries and among the six most innovative sectors. The analysis showed that the main dimensions of Information systems namely Project Resource Management System (PRMS), Knowledge Management System (KMS) and Collaborative Work System (CWS) have disparate impacts on the collaboration. The thesis also demonstrated the importance of non-technical aspects by exhibiting its mediating effects. However Collaborative Work System (CWS) and the relational dimension complexity raised interesting debates on their impact to collaboration performance. The results participates in raising awareness about the multidimensional nature that encompasses the use of IT in new product development. Through the results of this thesis, partners will recognize that an effective use of IT depends on the existence and sustainability of a symbiosis between technical and human features.