Organizing Innovation Complementarities between Cross-Functional Teams

James H. Love, Stephen Roper and Giovanni Mangiarotti

No 06-27, DRUID Working Papers from DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies

Abstract: Cross-functional teams play a potentially important part in the innovation process enabling knowledge sharing, the development of trust and overcoming spatial and organizational barriers. Using a supermodularity approach, we focus on potential complementarities which may arise when cross-functional teams are used in different elements of the innovation process in UK and German manufacturing plants. Using optimal combinations of cross-functional teams in the innovation process increases innovation success in the UK by 29.5 per cent compared to 9.5 per cent in Germany. Patterns of complementarity are complex, however, but are more uniform in the UK than in Germany. The most uniform complementarities are between product design and development and production engineering, with little synergy evident between the more technical phases of the innovation process and the development of marketing strategy. In strategic terms, our results suggest the value of using cross-functional teams for the more technical elements of the innovation process but that the development of marketing strategy should remain the domain of specialists.

Keywords: Innovation; cross-functional terms; complementarities; UK; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-ino and nep-mkt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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