The Impact of Communication Quality and Frequency on Organisational Learning during New Product Development

This paper examines how communication behaviours influence organisational learning during new product development (NPD). Partial least squares is used to test a model examining the effects of communication quality and frequency on four organisational learning dimensions (i.e. team orientation, systems orientation, memory orientation, and learning orientation). The results indicate that both communication dimensions positively influence the four organisational learning dimensions, with communication quality having the stronger effects. Our findings suggest that communication frequency should be coupled with communication quality during NPD if firms wish to increase organisational learning. Introduction Organisational learning involves firms acquiring, utilising, and disseminating information and thus is an important strategy for improving a firm’s competitive advantage (Chan and ScottLadd, 2004). Despite its importance, research on organisational learning has suffered from intermittent attention and it is only recently that there has been a more focused stream of research on this construct (Dawes, Lee, and Midgley, 2007). Organisational learning has been examined in a number of contexts, such as its influence in a purchasing process (e.g. Dawes et.al, 2007; Hult and Ferrell, 1997), its link with values, knowledge, and behaviour (e.g. Sinkula et al. 1997), and its impact on innovation and performance (e.g. Aragon-Correa et al. 2005). Moreover, recent research (e.g., Rama and Massey 2007) investigated the link between three communication behaviours – communication quality, frequency, and bidirectionality, and the global construct organisational learning. Their results revealed significant relationships between each communication behaviour and organisational learning. However, in order to gain a better understanding of organisational learning, here we test the impact of two communication behaviours on the four underlying dimensions of organisational learning. Many studies recognise the importance of intra-firm communication on business outcomes such as NPD success (e.g., Cooper, 1984; Dougherty, 1987). However, much of the existing research on communication behaviours examines only one communication dimension i.e., communication frequency. Fisher et al. (1997) suggest that a thorough understanding of communication behaviours cannot be gained by measuring only communication frequency. Therefore, to better understand the effects of different communication behaviours, our research examines two communication dimensions – communication quality and frequency. The context for our study is communication and organisational learning during NPD projects, because it is widely recognised that NPD is a source of competitive advantage for firms as it improves a firm’s competitive position and strengthens their competitive advantage (Cormican and O’Sullivan, 2004). Moreover, research suggests that communication behaviours and organisational learning are two key factors that can impact on the effectiveness of the NPD process (e.g. Rama and Massey, 2007). The objective of this