TECHNOLOGY UNCERTAINTY AND PROJECT MANAGERS' INFORMATION SHARING — A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF TWO NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Abstract

Research has focused primarily on either intra-organizational information sharing (between actors within an organization) or inter-organizational information sharing (between organizations). This paper explores both intra- and inter-organizational information sharing and the role of technology uncertainty during various phases of new product development (NPD) projects. In this study, we compare two longitudinal NPD sub-projects that differ in uncertainty within the same large NPD project, in which the data source is the complete email exchange between a project manager and various actors (consisting of 3979 emails). The results show high levels of information sharing with the customer in both the early and late phases of high uncertainty. Interestingly, in the low uncertainty project, information sharing with the production department and the supplier is higher during the late phase of the NPD project. Unexpectedly, in both sub-projects, the project manager shares information with a wider range of both intra- and inter-organization actors in the early phases of the projects than in the late phases.