Agile R&D units' organisation and its relationship with innovation performance

Abstract

Firms increasingly apply agile approaches in their development processes, and therefore researchers started investigating how agility affects innovation performance. However, previous research on agility often only considers software development or approaches the concept only from an outcome perspective (i.e. increased adaptability to changes) instead of from a capability perspective (i.e. how to organise for adaptability to be successful). Consequently, research failed to investigate how the organisation of agile research and development (R&D) units in physical new product development (NPD) affects innovation performance. We apply structural equation modelling on 162 R&D units in a large industrial firm and analyse the interplay of agile R&D units' organisation, the resulting agility, front‐end success and NPD success. Moreover, we consider contingency factors of environmental turbulence. The study extends research on agility's neglected capability perspective in innovation management, thus providing a better understanding of agility's relationship with innovation performance and showing managers how to increase their unit's NPD success.