Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 8-10, 2016 The Impact of ICT Usage on Collaborative Product Development Performance: A Conceptual Model and Industry Perspective Chathurani Silva School of Engineering and Advanced Technology Massey University Auckland, New Zealand c.w.c.silva@massey.ac.nz, chathurani@sjp.ac.lk Sanjay Mathrani School of Engineering and Advanced Technology Massey University Auckland, New Zealand S.Mathrani@massey.ac.nz Nihal Jayamaha School of Engineering and Advanced Technology Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand N.P.Jayamaha@massey.ac.nz Abstract—Collaborative product development (CPD) is a vital strategy adopted by many manufacturing firms for higher competitiveness. Efficient processing of information via information and communication technology (ICT) tools is essential for practicing CPD. Uncovering the impact of ICT usage on performance of CPD projects with varying characteristics will provide valuable insights to CPD practitioners. So far, the practical relevance and appropriateness of criteria used in previous research models evaluating the ICT impact have not been sufficiently confirmed. This study develops a research model based on relational resource-based view and organizational information processing theory to evaluate the impact of ICT usage on CPD performance. The study qualitatively examines this model, using data collected through interviews from manufacturing and ICT vendor firms for assessing various ICT usage dimensions, project characteristics representing information processing requirement, and CPD performance outcomes. The results support the concepts and relationships conceptualized in the model while identifying project complexity as the project characteristic that predominantly represents the information processing requirement of a CPD project. The findings offer valuable insights to practitioners with significant theoretical implications for future studies addressing the role of ICT in CPD. Keywords— ICT usage; collaborative product development; qualitative studies; relational resource-based view; organizational information processing theory I. INTRODUCTION Introducing new products with customer required quality, speed, and cost is a key challenge for many manufacturing organizations in today’s competitive business environment. Collaborations with external and internal partners such as suppliers, customers, and cross functional teams enable firms to bring valuable technological and market knowledge to the new products from various sources. Firms possessing differing levels of collaborative competencies realize varied levels of project and market performance [1]. Communication between partners and exchange of quality information timely are vital for determining the degree of collaborative competence [2]. Therefore, right processing of information needs to be guaranteed for successful collaborative product development (CPD). Information and communication technologies (ICTs) including tools for face-to-face communication provide the key media for processing information required by CPD teams [3, 4]. Real-time communication, concurrent operations, and increased information access facilitated by ICT tools help firms overcome social, technical and organizational barriers for CPD [5, 6]. Since higher use of ICT tools leads to substantial costs in companies, selection of the tools may need planning to simply meet information processing requirements in the R&D projects. Exploring a holistic view on the impact of ICT usage would be vital for planning these technologies effectively for CPD. 464 © IEOM Society International