مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله مدیریت مالی چند ملیتی – Journal of Multinational Financial Management

Multinational companies (MNCs), particularly in technology intensive firms have been shifting their operational formats to project-oriented organization adopting temporary team to deal with increasing complex environment through projects (e.g., Maidique & Hayes, 1984; Sydow, Lindkvist, & DeFillippi, 2004). Particularly, in the automotive industry, Clark, Chew, and Fujimoto (1987) found that new product development (NPD hereinafter) projects in the automotive industry consist, to a large extent, of investment in research and development (R&D) and represent a substantial commitment of company resources to ensure advances in technology through the introduction of timely new products to the marketplace. As such, growth and sustainability in MNCs automotive industry depend largely on the successful management of the resources dedicated to completing both short- and long-run projects (e.g. Brady & Davies, 2004). Short-run NPD project completion refers to the performance of the project on the targeted timeframe and within a predetermined budget, whereas long-run NPD project performance is associated with the organizational potential created through the knowledge transfer from current projects to future projects (Shenhar, Levy, & Dvir, 1997).

Sivasubramaniam, Liebowitz, and Lackman (2012), in their report of meta-analysis on NPD team performance, revealed that team ability is one of the key influencing factors on project effectiveness and efficiency. This echoes the arguments of Grant1996) and Collins and Smith (2006) that technology intensive firms in rapidly changing industries derive their primary competitive advantage through the ability of their employees to create and manage knowledge for creating innovation. Moreover, Brady and Davies (2004) and Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) explained that the ability of project team is valuable resource because high capability team could engender the ‘project-to-project’ learning by capturing project knowledge, transferring lessons learned and experience in the current project to a subsequent one. The ability in this regard is analogous to project team’s knowledge absorptive capacity (ACAP hereinafter), which Cohen and Levinthal (1990) categorized as the determinant of effective knowledge recipient. Zahra and George (2002) delineated the ACAP concept into realized ACAP, employees’ ability to utilize existing knowledge for project success and potential ACAP, employees’ ability to transfer and apply their key learnings and experience to create new or innovative projects. Previous research shows support for the utility of two different determinants of knowledge receiver to facilitate project outcomes: project team’s realized ACAP has positive influence on short-run NPD project performance whist project team’s potential ACAP on long-run NPD project performance (Popaitoon & Siengthai, 2014).

However, Kim (1997) pointed that project team’s knowledge ACAP could be intensified on its link with NPD project outcomes should the motivational devices are being used appropriately to exert the project team to utilize, transfer and share knowledge (see also Amabile & Kramer, 2011; Anand & Gomez-Mejia, 2014; Cerasoli, Nicklin, & Ford, 2014; Rose & Manley, 2011; Schmid & Adams, 2008; Zhao & Chadwick, 2014). For example, Schmid and Adams (2008) reported that motivational devices such as extrinsic reward and intrinsically challenged tasks will benefit project team at different stages of project. Osterloh and Frey (2000) pointed to the important role of intrinsic motivation on knowledge transfer across team members, particularly the transfer of tacit knowledge as a primary source of innovation that is crucial for NPD projects (e.g., Dewett, 2007). In contrast, other research projects suggested that extrinsic rewards can improve project team’s speed of work and their likelihood to support other team members so as the overarching project goals were achieved (e.g. Szulanski, 2000; Zander & Kogut, 1995). Amabile (1993) proposed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can combine synergistically whereby extrinsic motivation can complement intrinsic motivation to yield higher level of performance and that employees’ ability should be taken into account when applying these two types of motivation. As such, the effects of motivational devices will not be undermined. Scholars such as Zhao and Chadwick (2014) and Minbaeva (2007) explored this combined effect of ability and motivation in their study of related NPD projects but these studies did not demonstrate clearly the interaction of ability with different types of motivation.