STRATEGIC DECISION COMPREHENSIVENESS AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES IN NEW TECHNOLOGY VENTURES.

Abstract

With a sample of new technology ventures in China, we investigated the contingent effect of strategic decision comprehensiveness on new product performance and prod-uct quality. The relationship between strategic decision comprehensiveness and new product performance was negatively moderated by technology uncertainty but posi-tively moderated by demand uncertainty. The effect of decision comprehensiveness on new product quality was positively moderated by demand uncertainty but unaffected by technology uncertainty. The comprehensiveness-performance link emerges as more complex than previous research has shown. A key distinguishing characteristic of the strate-gic management discipline is the emphasis it places on firms ’ competitive environments. Firms are viewed as information-processing or interpreta-tion systems that scan and collect data from their environments, interpret the data, and then learn by acting upon the interpretation (Daft & Weick, 1984). This notion is central to the contingency perspec-tive that underlies information processing theory. According to the contingency perspective, the fit between the information-processing requirements facing a firm and the information-processing capac-ity offered by the firm’s strategy process determines success (Galbraith, 1973; Tushman & Nadler, 1978). For example, a key prediction of this theory is that in highly turbulent environments a firm faces com-plex information-processing requirements that are such that it requires organizational designs (includ-ing strategic processes, control systems, and com-munication patterns and structures) allowing real-time, fast information collection and interpretation