Cultural Mix and Success Factors in New Product Development : An Example from the Thai Food Processing Industry

Success in new product development (NPD) depends, among other things, on how the NPD process is organized. Key issues are strategy and planning, internal information flow and communication, and external communication with suppliers. Recent work proposes that companies can take advantage of cultural characteristics by locating different stages of NPD in countries where culture is conducive to the sorts of tasks needed for each stage. However, NPD in a mixed cultural context (such as partnerships or joint ventures) may work differently compared to a homogenous cultural setting. We look NPD in the food processing industry in Thailand. In purely Thai companies, internal information flow and communication is the key element distinguishing success in the NPD process. Strategy and planning and supplier linkages do not help discriminate low from high success rates. Where foreign influence brings a mixed cultural context, internal communication no longer influences success rates, but strategy and planning become the key element