How competitive intensity drives firms to speed up new product development? The mediating effect of knowledge integration and the moderating effect of market orientation

Abstract

While industry conventions underscore the imperative for firms to accelerate their new product development (NPD) speed in order to maintain competitive advantage, especially when they face intense competition, extant literature has afforded relatively scant attention to the phenomenon of competitive intensity as a driver of NPD speed. Equally underexplored are the operational mechanisms and the boundary conditions of the effects of competitive intensity on NPD speed. Drawing on the knowledge‐based view, this paper reveals how competitive intensity shapes firms' NPD speed through knowledge integration and the contingency of both the direct effects and the mediating effect on market orientation. Data collected from a sample of Chinese manufacturing firms support the hypotheses of these multifaceted effects. The research findings contribute to the NPD literature in multiple ways and provide useful recommendations to managers.