Exploring the antecedents and consequences of technology and knowledge integration mechanisms in the context of NPD

In order to provide new products that are more innovative and are suited to customer needs, enterprises have started to look for assistance from external partners. Consequently, as firms launch new product development (NPD), it has become more critical to determine a method by which to integrate technology and knowledge together and to enhance absorptive capability (AC) of firms in the process of information, technology and knowledge sharing. This study thus combines the concepts of corporate social capital (CSC), intellectual capital, and AC, and discusses the influence of internal/external resource integration on technology integration mechanisms (TIM) and knowledge integration mechanisms (KIM), as well as AC’s effect on NPD. Three hundred and ninety-four valid responses were collected and partial least squares structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. The results show that interaction ties and the shared language of CSC positively affect TIM, while human capital and organizational capital have positive influences on KIM. In addition, TIM and KIM both have significant and positive influences on AC and AC further influences NPD performance. Therefore, this study suggests that firms have to establish interaction bases for utilizing external knowledge to assist in NPD, and this can be achieved by offering a friendly environment to encourage employees to be more willing to contribute their knowledge.