An Empirical Study: The Impact of Collaborative Communications on New Product Creativity That Contributes to New Product Performance

Creativity is vital and a key determinant for the success of many organizations in today’s competitive environment. Research in marketing has suggested that collaborative communication is important to sustain a competitive advantage. Leveraging a resource-based view, this research provides a comprehensive view examining the different facets of collaborative communication— reciprocal feedback, rationality, formal communication, and informal communication, on the mean-ingfulness and novelty of new product creativity, and their impacts on new product performance. Based on 181 sets of responses, our findings indicate that rationality posits a significant positive effect on the meaningfulness of new product creativity, which in turn contributes to new product performance. As for the novelty of new product creativity, it is influenced by informal communication whilst the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) further strengthens the positive association between informal communications and the novelty of new product creativity. This study provides theoretical contributions to the new product development literature as well as practical insights for organizations on the importance of collaborative communication to new product creativity and improvements in new product performance.