The Relationships Among Environmental Turbulence and Socio-Technical Risk Factors Affecting Project Risks and Performance in NPD Project Teams

Abstract

This study proposes a research framework to empirically examine the relationships among environmental turbulence, socio-technical risk factors, project risk, and project performance for a New Product Development (NPD) project team in the telecommunications industry. In addition, the moderating effect of communication on the relationship between project risk and project performance is also analyzed. The samples were collected from NPD team projects in 17 of Taiwan's telecommunication public firms. Our results indicate a positive relationship between: (1) environmental turbulence and social-related risks, (2) social-related risks and technical-related risks, (3) socio-technical related risks and project risks, and (4) a strong negative relationship between project risks and project performance. Meanwhile, although statistically insignificant, the moderating effect of communication could weaken the relationship between project risk and project performance.