Robin Pesch

The double-edged sword of cultural distance in international alliances: How perceived cultural distance influences trust and task discourse to drive new product development performance

Purpose While previous studies have primarily assumed dysfunctional effects of cultural distance in joint ventures and M&A, this paper elucidates from a positive organizational scholarship perspective how perceived cultural distance can advance firms’ new product development within non-equity alliances. The purpose of this paper is to explain how perceived cultural distance stimulates task discourse that supports alliance partners’ employees in recognizing and applying culture-related differences as complementary problem-solving potentials. Due to a lower integration level in non-equity alliances compared to joint ventures or M&A, this paper assumes that the positive effects outweigh the negative effects of cultural distance. Design/methodology/approach This study applies structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized effects on a sample of 246 international alliances in the manufacturing industry. Findings The analysis mainly supports the hypothesized model and unravels how positive effects can emerge from perceived cultural distance. Practical implications The findings provide managerial implications. Alliance managers should note that cultural distance can have positive and negative effects, and thus it is not a barrier per se in alliances. Firms can benefit from cultural distance if they are able to leverage culture-specific complementarities through task discourse among partners in alliances. Originality/value The manuscript uses a unique data set of 246 international alliances from the global manufacturing industry. The manuscript has not been published elsewhere.

Effects of Communication Style and Age Diversity in Innovation Teams

This study explores how new product development is affected by age and communication style diversity in teams. Results are derived from a survey study of 232 German SMEs and indicate that a diversity of communication styles in teams has ambivalent effects. On the one hand, it improves a creative team environment that facilitates product innovativeness and speed to market of new product development within teams. On the other hand, it increases relationship conflicts. Even though relationship conflicts have no direct impact on innovation performance, they hamper a creative team environment. Our results indicate that the beneficial effects of communication style diversity outweigh the dysfunctional effects on innovation performance in teams. Age diversity however has only a positive association with relationship conflicts.

Effects of divergent communication schemes in new product development alliances

Purpose - – Firms build new product development alliances to cope with the demands of continuous and rapid new product development. Such alliances allow surplus access to complementary capabilities and knowledge. However, the successful use of specialization advantages requires coordination and effective communication between alliance partners. Communication is vital to alliance success, as it allows a timely flow of information and resources across partners and supports the coordination within the alliance. The aim of this study is to research how divergent communication schemes influence firms’ new product development performance in alliances. Design/methodology/approach - – A paper-and-pencil survey about firms’ collaborative new product development performance in the German medical device industry was conducted. Results are derived from a survey of Findings - – The empirical results indicate that divergent communication schemes enhance product innovativeness and speed to market in new product development alliances. The development of new insights and solutions through joint sensemaking builds the theoretical fundament for the supportive effects of divergent communication schemes. Divergent communication schemes go hand in hand with ambiguity, that is, the source of joint dialogues and discussion through which alliance partners refine and adapt their different perspectives and interpretations. However, the supportive effect of divergent communication schemes on speed to market declines with increasing collaboration intensity. Research limitations/implications - – The assessment of divergent communication schemes and new product development performance of the dyadic relationships in this survey is only based on one respondent. Furthermore, the study’s focus on a specific industry sector, albeit one fitting particularly well to the research question, may further limit the generalizability of the empirical findings. Future research should thus strive to take both firms of the dyadic relationship into account and moreover attempt to investigate mediating effects such as joint sensemaking or creativity. Practical implications - – The results indicate that alliance managers should become aware that different ways of communication are not Originality/value - – Prior research has stressed the importance of interorganizational communication for the success of alliances. However, little is known about the effect of divergent communication schemes in alliances. This study shows theoretically and empirically that divergent communication schemes can improve new product development performance in alliances. The supportive effect of divergent communication schemes is contrary to the argumentation that communication problems and misinterpretations hamper alliance success.

Divers und doch Produktiv? - Zum Umgang mit kultureller Diversität bei Dienstleistungsunternehmen

Dienstleistungsunternehmen beschaftigen im Zuge der Globalisierung zunehmend Mitarbeitende aus verschiedenen Kulturen und haben Kontakt mit Kunden aus unterschiedlichen Landern. Daher verwundert es umso mehr, dass der Umgang mit kultureller Diversitat im Dienstleistungsmanagement bisher nur gestreift worden ist. Zwar werden Kulturunterschiede schon seit Jahren erforscht und ihre Bedeutung immer wieder unterstrichen (Hofstede 1980; Hall 1989; Schneider/ Barsoux2003; Trompenaars/Hampden- Turner 2008), jedoch fehlen systematische Uberlegungen zu den Wirkungen kultureller Diversitat in Dienstleistungsprozessen. Betont wird allerdings, dass kulturelle Diversitat mit kulturspezifischen Erwartungen an Dienstleistungsprozesse einhergeht und daher ein kulturell diversifiziertes Marketing notwendig ist (Ahlert et al. 2005). Das Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist diese wichtige Forschungslucke zu schliesen und kulturelle Diversitat in Dienstleistungsprozessen systematisch aufzuarbeiten sowie deren Beitrag zur Steigerung der Dienstleistungsproduktivitat aufzuzeigen. Um fur unterschiedliche Dienstleistungsbranchen Aussagekraft zu entfalten, ist dieser Beitrag konzeptioneller Natur.