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EJIM 9,2

Teleworking and new product development

Angel Martnez-Sanchez, Manuela Perez-Perez and Pilar de-Luis-Carnicer
Departamento de Economa y Direccion de Empresas, Centro Politecnico Superior, Zaragoza, Spain, and Departamento de Economa y Direccion de Empresas, Escuela Universitaria de Estudios Empresariales, Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract
Purpose To develop a model that assess the feasibility to telework new product activities. Design/methodology/approach Literature review of innovation and telework to nd criteria relevant to use telework in new product development activities. Findings The rst stage of the model assess the feasibility of telework in new product development activities according to four criteria: importance of teamwork, need of using equipment and laboratories, intensity of data processing, and frequency of meetings. The second stage assess the level of knowledge in each new product development activity. The model analyses the knowledge tasks according to four basic knowledge processes: generation, codication, storage and transfer. The third and nal stage assess the distribution of productive work time of new product development employees to obtain groups of new product development activities suitable to be teleworked. Research limitations/implications Firstly, to enlarge the taxonomy of variables that dene each one of the four basic knowledge management processes included in the model. Secondly, to test empirically with case studies and surveys the working time requirements of knowledge tasks. The number of knowledge tasks included in the analysis could also be enlarged in future studies. Practical implications The framework provides an aid to research and managerial application of telework in new product development activities. The methodology developed in the paper may be useful for preliminary analysis of teleworking implementation projects. It may also help to the adoption of information and communication technologies for the companys new development processes. Originality/value The adoption of teleworking among knowledge processes arises the question whether teleworking may be used in the companys innovation activities. The methodology proposed in the paper wants to contribute to this topic by developing a framework adapted to the different activities in the new product development process. Keywords Teleworking, New products, Product development, Knowledge processes Paper type General review

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M Jose Vela-Jimenez

European Journal of Innovation Management Vol. 9 No. 2, 2006 pp. 202-214 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1460-1060 DOI 10.1108/14601060610663578

1. Introduction The 1990s has witnessed a convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) to link companies and people, including e-mail, group-ware, and web technologies. Many authors acknowledge the role these technologies play in creating the ability for individuals, including knowledge workers, to work anywhere,
The authors thank the nancial support of the grant CICYT SEC2002-01883.

anytime and anyplace. These tools have certainly fuelled information sharing at the grass-roots level among an unprecedented number of individuals within organisations. But organisational learning objectives continue to be constrained by a common factor: people capabilities. The impact of these technologies on knowledge workers shows the existence of both deskilling and intellectual specialisation effects on the part of knowledge workers. In this sense, teleworking is viewed as an alternative way to organise work that involves the complete or partial use of ICT to enable workers to get access to their labour activities from different and remote locations. There are many examples in the literature of jobs and tasks that are teleworked within the companies in a regular basis such as data processing or telemarketing. However, there is less evidence on the use of teleworking to perform knowledge tasks and jobs such as innovation or strategic planning. There are very few empirical studies that have analysed the adoption process of teleworking among knowledge work and knowledge organisations (Bentley and Yoong, 2000). There are several topics related to the impact of teleworking on organisations that are still very little studied. One of these issues is the relationship between teleworking and technological innovation. Even though there are activities currently performed by teleworking that are or can be included in the process of technological innovation, there are not studies that have analysed the type of relationship between teleworking and innovation: can innovation be a objective of teleworking? Does teleworking improve the innovative behaviour of people and organisations? Does teleworking increase the efciency of the new product development process? These and other questions are examples of the little known topic of teleworking and innovation. This paper wants to contribute to analyse a preliminary issue, which is the integration of teleworking in the companys innovation process, and more precisely in the new product development process. There are two opposite views about the feasibility of teleworking. The rst view proposes that routinely tasks are prime candidates for teleworking, whereas the second view indicates that knowledge activities are more stimulating to be performed remotely with the use of ICT (Shin et al., 2000). Regarding this, it is reasonable to previously analyse the feasibility of innovative activities like most of the activities included in the process of new product development. The paper is structured in the following way. The second section reviews the literature on the success factors in the process of new product development that may inuence on the feasibility of teleworking. The third section proposes a methodology to analyse the feasibility of teleworking for these types of activities. The fourth section discusses how the role of teleworking might differ across several product and organisational conditions. Finally, the paper concludes with the limitations of the study and further research. 2. New product development The adoption of teleworking for new product development should take into account its impact on the success factors of new product development. Particularly, this paper focuses on the relationship between teleworking and the activities of the new product development process, and also with some organisational practices like teamwork. Several studies have analysed the success and failure of new products, and the differences between winners and losers. These studies have identied success factors

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at both project level (e.g. the synergism of new product and the attraction of new market) and development level (e.g. product denition) that greatly contribute to the product success in the marketplace. Other studies have highlighted the role of environmental factors and rm organisation on the new product success. These studies conclude that companies more successful in new product development have common features of internal organisation and the importance assigned to some stages of the new product development project. Firstly, the organisational context of the new product development process is very important. The use of multifunctional teams and the adoption of inter-department responsibilities are positively related to the new product performance, including development and marketing time (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1991; Dwyer, 1990; Grifn and Hauser, 1996). Nevertheless, the integration of different departments is not required in every new product development activity but it is more effective in some of them. On the other hand, Souder et al. (1998) found that the level of integration is also related to the degree of technological and market uncertainty that must face the new product development programme. Similarly, an organisational culture that supports innovation also positively contribute to the success of new product development programmes (Gupta and Wilemon, 1990; Johne and Snelson, 1988). This innovative culture should include organisational practices that facilitate teamwork, stimulate the presence of product champions, incentive new product proposals by employees, and support risk taking and tolerate failures (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1995; Gupta and Wilemon, 1990; Markham and Grifn, 1998). Secondly, several studies have shown the inuence of the new product development process on project performance (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1994; Peters and Waterman, 1982). According to these studies, the activities of the new product development process if they are included or not and their quality performance are directly related to the project result. For example, a strong market orientation or dening the product characteristics before developing, are new product development activities that are positively related to project success (Brentanni, 1991; Di Benedetto, 1999; Maidique and Zirger, 1984; Mishra et al., 1996). Similarly, a formal process of new product development is also a positive inuence on project success (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1991, 1995). Besides the literature about the success factors of new product development, other studies have focused on the development team performance. Most of these studies focus on the positive effect that the use of information technologies has to facilitate communication between team members. On the other hand, there are studies that have analysed the management of teams (McDonough and Kahn, 1996) and found that competitive teams used ICT more intensively. They also found that team management was more important than the use of the technologies, like the access of team members to data bases for project development and the management of meetings. Similarly, McDonough et al. (2001) found that virtual teams performed better (greater productivity, shorter development times, etc.) than global teams with members from different countries. The challenges and difculties experienced by both types of new product development teams were not signicantly different, although they were greater than the challenges and difculties experienced by in-house teams. These results suggest than the challenges of project management are more related to the distance between team members than to their cultural or language differences. Schmidt

et al. (2001) also found that virtual teams make more effective decisions of new product development project continuation than face-to-face teams. May and Carter (2001) indicate the potential to increase the efciency and the exibility of virtual team working in the automotive industry, with potential time savings of between 10 and 50 per cent for different stages in the product introduction process. Given its speed, convenience, interactivity and world-wide coverage, the ICT like the internet can help rms collect, categorise and use information needed for product development, enable them to understand their market better and, hence, help them reduce the fuzziness in the new product development process (Ozer, 2003). In addition, the internet can facilitate the collaboration of different people who are involved in product development, increase the speed and the quality of new product testing and validation and improve the effectiveness and the efciency of product development and launch. These results suggest that virtual settings like teleworking may be as effective as other organisational settings for new product development. The next section outlines the feasibility and difculties that teleworking may have as a way to manage the new product development process. 3. Teleworking feasibility for new product development The implementation of teleworking for new product development should take into account the impact of teleworking on the success factors and the performance of teamwork. The empirical evidence indicates that innovative activities, and more specically the new product development activities are highlighted in the statistics of teleworking. For example, the latest report on e-work in the European Union showed that the two main functions performed remotely by the use of information technologies are the software development and maintenance (59 per cent of companies), and the design and development of multimedia (38 per cent) (Huws et al., 2001). Similarly, the ranking of jobs that Edwards and Edwards (1995) assess to be performed remotely with the use of information technologies identies as innovative activities: software development, computer aided design, and reports and business plans. On the other hand, other scholars (Carrasco and Salinas, 1994) highlight that there are several innovative-related activities among those more suitable to be teleworked, like software development, design services, and data processing. The statistics show that teleworking is more frequent among information-intensive activities like software development. But it is not so frequent among other activities in new product development. The next paragraphs develop a methodology to assess the feasibility of teleworking according to the success factors of those other activities. The proposed methodology includes three types of analysis. The rst analysis is based on the model developed by Nilles (1994) to establish the percentage of tasks that must performed in the companys facilities, either under the present work organisation or after a job restructuring process. Thus, it can be assessed the degree of independence of each job to relocate at home (home-based teleworking) or at telecenters. Nilles (1994) also proposes to assess the number of days per week that are needed to have meetings in the company, which must have a limit for the feasibility of teleworking. Table I enumerates the main stages included in the process of new product development (Martinez and Navarro, 1991). All these activities are not performed by every company, because some of them are omitted and others are jointly performed. Although different rms may adopt different new product development processes and

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Concept generation Technical feasibility analysis Market feasibility analysis Financial analysis Prototype design Product technical test Market test Pre-production Product launch After-sales service

Importance of teamwork High Medium Low Low Medium Low Medium High Medium Low

Need to use research labs Null Low Null Null Low High Low Alta Null Low

Intensity to process data Low Low Medium Medium High Medium High Medium High Medium

Frequency of meetings Medium Medium Medium Low Medium Medium Medium High Medium Low

206

Table I. Assessment of new product development activities to be performed by teleworking

Source: Own elaboration

different products may require different processes, a new product idea needs to be conceived, selected, developed, tested and launched to the market. Then, it is possible to identify several characteristics for each stage in order to assess the potential impact of teleworking according to the dependence of the work site for each new product development activity. Table I assesses the activities according to four criteria related to the performance by teleworking: importance of teamwork, need to use research laboratories, intensity of data processing, and frequency of meetings. The assessments indicated in the table are only guiding. Initially, the activities most suitable to telework would be those with low or medium frequency of meetings (last column); a high frequency of meetings that require commuting to the ofce would not make efcient the technology invested for the teleworker. At the same time, those activities that require a frequent use of face-to-face teamwork (second column) would be more difcult to perform remotely by teleworking, mainly if they have to interchange tacit knowledge. If the job relies on face-to-face contact with a diverse set of co-workers and clients, telework will be difcult; but if employees are updating a web site, querying online databases, or compiling research reports, then it might be able to work quite successfully from home. And regarding the need of using research laboratories, the more frequent the use of these labs the less feasible to perform that activity by teleworking. Finally, the intensity of data processing facilitates the implementation of information technologies and the use of teleworking. For example, after-sales service or telemarketing are feasible activities for teleworking because their frequency of meetings, need of teams and research labs is low, even though they are intensive in data processing. The second analysis included in the methodology to assess the process of new product development under teleworking is to study the degree of knowledge within each activity. Regarding this, some scholars (Smart et al., 2001) have analysed the added value of knowledge activities according to the time needed by an average person to learn how to perform each task or according to the value assigned in the companys work organisation. Other analyses use a multidimensional focus to study knowledge activities. For example, Garavelli and Gorgoglione (2001) propose an

analysis of the problems experienced by manufacturing through the use of four basic knowledge processes: generation, storage, transfer and codication. By dening one variable for each process, it can be used a framework analysis like Table II. The variable associated to the process of knowledge generation is the various forms and degrees of uncertainty that characterise the activity to perform. It is related to missing or unreliable data, ambiguous interpretations, and limited human capabilities (resulting in uncertain knowledge). The task uncertainty is connected to the repetitiveness of the decisions: the higher the former, the lower the latter. The development of new products and innovation processes requires different levels of uncertainty, according to the type of innovation: radical or incremental. The second variable refers to the time-dependence of the task. It can concern the need of information related to previous experience as well as to future scenario forecasting to perform specic tasks. There will be tasks which are not in need of going back or forward in time, while other tasks may need both activities. The variable related to knowledge transfer denes the communication requirements of the task with external sources. A task may not need any external information like, for example, a prototype test in the companys research laboratories. On the contrary, there are tasks that strongly require external information from other organisation units as well as transfer to other departments or organisations, such as the joint development of automotive components between assemblers and rst-tier suppliers. Finally, the fourth variable refers to the codication of knowledge. This type of codication is related to the type of knowledge and its transformation. It ranges from a highly tacit level, where knowledge can be described and codied by qualitative models (reports, videoconferences, etc.), to an explicit level, where knowledge can be described by more exact and objective models (equations, bibliometric analysis, etc.). This proxy of the knowledge codication process then ranges from tasks very intensive in explicit and quantitative knowledge like a web site design, to tasks that are more in need of tacit and qualitative knowledge like some advertising. This model allows to assess the different new product development activities. Table III shows this assessment. The analysis of information included in the table may be carried out along the following rules for each variable. Firstly, regarding the process of knowledge generation required by an activity, the model proposes that the more routinely the task, the easier to telework. Routinely tasks are simpler to learn and require less planning, which facilitates performing that activity in other locations outside the company. Secondly, the storage and retrieval of knowledge may imply that those tasks requiring more quantity and complexity of information and data forecasting are more difcult to perform by teleworking because they need access to data bases and specialised software. Thirdly, the need to transfer information to an
Cognitive process Generation Storage and retrieval Transfer Codication Variable Uncertainty Time-dependence Space-dependence Codication level Values Routine task unstructured task Time independent experience or forecasts Local integrated Qualitative quantitative

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Source: Garavelli and Gorgoglione (2001)

Table II. Analysis model of knowledge tasks in the new product development process

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Concept generation Technical feasibility analysis Market feasibility analysis Financial analysis Prototype design Product technical test Market test Pre-production Product launch After-sales service Source: Own elaboration

Generation Not structured Not structured Not structured Routinely Not structured Routinely Routinely Not structured Not structured Routinely

Storage Independent Forecasts Forecasts Forecasts Independent Independent Forecasts Independent Forecasts Independent

Transfer Local Local Integrated Local Integrated Local Integrated Local Integrated Integrated

Codication Qualitative Both Both Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Qualitative Quantitative

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Table III. Assessment of knowledge processes in each new product development activity

increasing number of agents in the knowledge generation process will difcult teleworking because the teleworker needs face-to-face or virtual (teleconferences) meetings with colleagues and supervisors. Face-to-face meetings will require commuting to the ofce, and videoconferences need investments in equipment and software. Finally, regarding the codication of knowledge required by each task, the model proposes that those tasks that need tacit and implicit knowledge are more difcult to telework because of the same reason related to the need of meetings. The third type of analysis is the distribution of time needed by the teleworker to perform different activities. Given that there are several classication schemes of productive time in the new product development process, the proposed analysis is exclusively based in the assessment of time needed to the knowledge tasks related to that process. Regarding this, Bentley and Yoong (2000) found that the productive work time of knowledge workers consist of: . Knowledge sharing time. The individual knowledge of the workers becomes collective knowledge when they share with others what they learn through experience. It is more than just passing on information, it is about offering opinion, interpreting analytically, and generating new ideas. . Thinking/quiet time. Knowledge workers may benet from the undisturbed environment at home to generate new ideas or innovative approaches to a problem. Further iterations with colleagues would be necessary in order to advance those ideas but e-mail and other electronic communications may be used in an early exploratory stage before a more open discussion arises within the company. . Research/writing time. Knowledge workers must devote time and effort to research through databases for information to perform activities and carry out projects or develop innovative ideas. . Operational/functional time. That is required for knowledge transfer and communication. Knowledge teleworkers tend to use the secretarial/administrative support while in the ofce and take home those tasks that do not require secretarial assistance. Nevertheless, some editing and research writing aspects of the job are performed by teleworkers at home, leaving the support staff to format the result in the style of the organisation.

With this time distribution framework, there are new product development tasks where the productive work time is evenly distributed among these four types of activities, whereas other tasks rely much more in one or a few of them. Initially, the tasks most suitable to teleworking would be those that do not need high knowledge sharing time. The importance of thinking/quiet time or research/writing time is less signicant. Table IV shows the assessment of new product development activities according to productive work times. For example, after-sales service would be a task suitable to telework because it would comply to the previous criteria. The feasibility of teleworking for different new product development activities can be analysed using these three metrics: tasks to be teleworked, knowledge processes within each task, and the time distribution of teleworkers. The assessment of each task under this framework will establish its feasibility to be performed by teleworking. Table V shows a distribution of new product development activities according to its feasibility level to be performed by teleworking. The most feasible activities would be
Operational/ functional time Low-medium Low-medium Low-medium Very low Low Low Medium-high Very low Medium Very low

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Knowledge sharing time Concept generation Technical feasibility analysis Market feasibility analysis Financial analysis Prototype design Product technical test Market test Pre-production Product launch After-sales service Very high Low-medium Low-medium Low Medium-high Medium Medium-high Medium High-very high Low-medium

Thinking/quiet time Very high Low-medium Low-medium Low Medium Low-medium Medium-high Low Medium-high Very low

Handling time Very high Medium Medium-high Low-medium Low-medium Medium-high Medium-high Low-medium Medium-very high Very low

Notes: Very low, low, medium, high, very high. This time has been evaluated in comparison with the productive time necessary to perform a similar routine task. Source: Own elaboration

Table IV. Level of importance of productive work time to perform new product development activities

Highly feasible

Less feasible

After-sales service Prototype design Market feasibility analysis Financial analysis Concept generation Pre-production Market test Product technical test Technical feasibility analysis Product launch

Source: Own elaboration

Table V. Feasibility of new product development activities

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those more intensive in the use of information, with low or medium frequency of meetings, and low or medium importance of knowledge sharing time. Some of these activities are also those found in the statistics and empirical evidence referenced in the rst paragraph of this section. Thus, the methodology developed in the paper may be useful to assess new product development processes. As this process is very specic for certain activities, it is not possible at this stage to go beyond the generic proposals developed so far. Nevertheless, teleworkings role cannot be uniform across different products such as innovative versus less-innovative products or industrial versus consumer products. In addition, the mere use of teleworking may not be sufcient to utilise its full potential in new product development. Instead, an effective use of teleworking may require several organisational conditions such as organisational learning capabilities, technical and marketing capabilities and collaborative capabilities. The following section discusses how the role of teleworking might differ across these product and organisational conditions. 4. Differential impacts of teleworking on new product development The differences that teleworkings role across several product and organisational conditions is shown below: . The role of teleworking in earlier stages of the new product development process (concept generation through feasibility analysis) will be less pronounced for innovative rather than less-innovative products. . Teleworking will be less used to develop new industrial products than consumer products. . The role of teleworking in new product development will be higher when a rm possesses necessary collaborative capabilities as opposed to when it does not. . The impact of teleworking in new product development will be limited if the rm does not have the necessary technical and marketing capabilities. . The role of teleworking in new product development will be enhanced when the organisation is learning oriented as opposed to when it is not. The rst difference is related to the degree of innovation. Innovative products usually involve greater uncertainties and risks than less-innovative products in terms of the nature of the product itself, market acceptance, and the rms capabilities to produce the product (Deszca et al., 1999). Because the earlier stages of the new product development process, including concept generation and technical feasibility analysis are more related to reducing product and process uncertainties, these activities are more important for innovative products than less-innovative products. Since, teleworking may be less suitable for these activities, companies that are more in need of these activities might be less willing to use teleworking in the new product development process. Secondly, there might be differences according to the type of industrial or consumer product. Compared to consumer products, industrial products require large and usually long-term nancial and non-nancial commitments, are more risky, and can affect the whole organisation (Day and Herbig, 1990). These characteristics mean that industrial new products require more careful concept generation and screening, more

detailed feasibility analysis, and more collaborative with potential buyers in prototype design, product test, and manufacturing development. These activities are less suitable to teleworking and, therefore, teleworking might be less used in the development of new industrial products. The third difference in the role of teleworking in new product development is related to the rms collaborative capabilities. New product development requires the collaboration of new product team members both within and outside the rm (Ozer, 2000; McDonough et al., 2001). But the use of teleworking will change the communication pattern both within and outside the rm. Successful collaborations require more than the mere use of electronic communication and involve new skills and a supportive context that provides commitment and resources to facilitate collaboration. Thus, the impact of teleworking in new product development will depend on the extent to which the rm already possesses necessary collaborative capabilities. The more collaborative capabilities, the more impact of teleworking in new product development process. Other similar difference is found among technical and marketing capabilities. The rms technical capabilities can help it develop and manufacture new products more effectively and efciently. Similarly, its marketing capabilities can help it collect market information. Unless the rm has the necessary new product development capabilities, the impact of teleworking in new product development will be limited. Finally, the rms organisational learning capabilities might also modify the impact of teleworking on new product development. One of the key new product success factors is to have a clear and specic product denition (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1991, 1995). Thus, new product development should include a learning aspect in order to clarify and specify the new products and discover ways of improving them. New product development is a knowledge intensive process. The generation and use of knowledge throughout the new product development process can create opportunities to improve the output of this process. The impact of teleworking on new product development will be limited if the rm has weak organisational learning capabilities. Unless there is already interest in learning, remote working might difcult the generation and transfer of knowledge among employees, with negative consequences for the new product development process. 5. Conclusion This paper has developed a model to analyse the feasibility of teleworking for new product development activities. The framework establishes three assessments: tasks to be teleworked, knowledge processes for each task, and the time distribution of teleworkers. The model suggests that the main difculty to telework knowledge tasks is the need to share knowledge to perform the task. The more knowledge sharing time the less teleworking feasibility. The literature shows that teleworking is organised differently for professionals and managers than for other employees. Professionals and managers are a large share of a companys knowledge employees. In general, teleworking for professionals and managers require a reorganisation of their job in order to allow an increase of exibility and work capacity so that it can be performed either in a continuous way either outside of regular business hours or during business trips. However, other employees teleworking is normally outsourced or performed part- or full-time by

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home-based self-employed workers. Professionals and managers may access the internet or the companys intranet from their home or any other place to consult databases, e-mail, videoconferences, etc. in order to perform different knowledge tasks. The methodology developed in the paper may be useful for preliminary analysis of teleworking implementation projects. It may also help to the adoption of ICT for the companys new development processes. There are some avenues to continue this research. Firstly, to enlarge the taxonomy of variables that dene each one of the four basic knowledge management processes included in the model. Secondly, to test empirically with case studies and surveys the working time requirements of knowledge tasks. Finally, the number of knowledge tasks included in the analysis could also be enlarged.
References Bentley, K. and Yoong, P. (2000), Knowledge work and telework: an exploratory study, Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 346-56. Brentanni, U. (1991), Success factors in developing new business service, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 33-59. Carrasco, R. and Salinas, J. (1994), Teletrabajo, Serie Monografas, Direccion General de Telecomunicaciones del Ministerio de Obras Publicas, Transportes y Medio Ambiente, Madrid. Cooper, R. and Kleinschmidt, E. (1991), New product processes at leading industrial rms, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 137-47. Cooper, R. and Kleinschmidt, E. (1994), Determinants of timeliness in new product development, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 381-96. Cooper, R. and Kleinschmidt, E. (1995), Benchmarking the rms critical success factors in new product development, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 374-91. Day, R. and Herbig, P. (1990), How the diffusion of industrial innovations is different from new retail products, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 19, pp. 261-6. Deszca, G., Munro, H. and Noori, H. (1999), Developing breakthrough products: challenges and options for market assessment, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 17, pp. 613-30. Di Benedetto, C. (1999), Identifying the key success factors in new product launch, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 530-44. Dwyer, L. (1990), Factors affecting the procient management of product innovation, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 5 No. 6, pp. 721-30. Edwards, P. and Edwards, S. (1995), List of the Best Prospective Home Businesses for 1995, Compuserve. Garavelli, A. and Gorgoglione, M. (2001), A knowledge-based model for the analysis of manufacturing problems, Proceedings of the 12th POMS Conference (Production and Operations Management Society), Orlando (US), 30 March-2 April. Grifn, A. and Hauser, J. (1996), Integrating R&D and marketing: a review and analysis of the literature, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 191-215. Gupta, A. and Wilemon, D. (1990), Improving R&D/marketing relations: R&D perspective, R&D Management, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 277-90. Huws, U., Jagger, N. and Bates, P. (2001), Where the Buttery Alights: The Global Location of eWork, Institute for Employment Studies, London.

Johne, A. and Snelson, P. (1988), Auditing product innovation activities in manufacturing rms, R&D Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 227-33. McDonough, E. and Kahn, K. (1996), Hard and Soft technologies for global new product development, R&D Management, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 241-53. McDonough, E., Kahn, K. and Barczak, G. (2001), An investigation of the use of global, virtual, and colocated new product development teams, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 110-20. Maidique, M. and Zirger, B. (1984), A study of success and failure in product innovation: the case of the US electronics industry, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 192-203. Markham, S. and Grifn, A. (1998), The breakfast of champions: associations between champions and product development environments, practices and performance, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 436-54. Martnez, A. and Navarro, L. (1991), Product innovation management in Spain, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 49-56. May, A. and Carter, C. (2001), A case study of virtual team working in the European automotive industry, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Vol. 27, pp. 171-86. Mishra, S., Kim, D. and Lee, D. (1996), Factors affecting new product success: cross country comparisons, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 530-50. Nilles, J. (1994), Making Telecommuting Happen. A Guide for Telemanagers and Telecommuters, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NewYork, NY. Ozer, M. (2000), Information technology and new product development: opportunities and pitfalls, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 387-96. Ozer, M. (2003), Process implications of the use of the internet in new product development: a conceptual analysis, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 32, pp. 517-30. Peters, T. and Waterman, R. (1982), In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, New York, NY. Schmidt, J., Montoya-Weiss, M. and Massey, A. (2001), New product development decision-making effectiveness: comparing individuals, face-to-face teams, and virtual teams, Decision Sciences, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 575-99. Shin, B., Sheng, O. and Higa, K. (2000), Telework: existing research and future directions, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 85-101. Smart, P., Maull, R., Karasneh, A., Housel, T. and Radnor, Z. (2001), An approach for identifying value in business processes, EUROMA Conference Proceedings, Bath (UK), 3-5 June, pp. 829-42. Souder, W., Sherman, J. and Davies-Cooper, R. (1998), Environmental uncertainties, organizational integration, and new product development effectiveness: a test of contingency theory, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 520-33. About the authors Angel Martnez-Sanchez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Management at the University of Zaragoza in Spain. He received his PhD in Engineering from the University of Zaragoza and holds a Master in Business Administration from the Politechnical University of Madrid. He has been a Research Fellow at universities in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. His research interests focus on innovation and technology management, production and supply chain management, teleworking and information technologies, human resources management, and gender. He has published in journals such as: International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, R&D

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Management, Technovation, Small Business Economics, Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Project Management, Personnel Review, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Women in Management Review, as well as numerous conference proceedings, books and research reports. Angel Martnez-Sanchez is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: anmarzan@unizar.es Manuela Perez-Perez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Management at the University of Zaragoza in Spain. She received her PhD in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Zaragoza. Her research interests include teleworking and information technologies, human resources management, gender, and production and supply chain management. She has published in journals such as: International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Project Management, Technovation, Personnel Review, Management International Review, International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Women in Management Review, as well as numerous conference proceedings, books and research reports. Pilar de-Luis-Carnicer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Management at the University of Zaragoza in Spain. She received her PhD in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Zaragoza. Her research interests include gender, human resources management, and teleworking. She has published in journals such as: Personnel Review, Women in Management Review, International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Technovation, as well as numerous conference proceedings, books and research reports. M Jose Vela-Jimenez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Management at the University of Zaragoza in Spain. She holds a Master in Economics and Business Administration. Current research interests include human resources management, teleworking, and gender. She has published in journals such as: Personnel Review, International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Women in Management Review, as well as numerous conference proceedings, books and research reports.

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