Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 32, Number 4
Fall 2001
New Product Development Decision-Making Effectiveness: Comparing
Individuals, Face-To-Face Teams, and Virtual Teams
Jeffrey B. Schmidt
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Business
Administration, College of Commerce & Business Administration,
1206 South Sixth Street, Room 350, Champaign, IL 61820, email:
jbs@uiuc.edu
Mitzi M. Montoya-Weiss
North Carolina State University, College of Management, Department
of Business Management, Box 7229, Raleigh, NC 27695, email: mitzi_montoya-weiss@ncsu.edu
Anne P. Massey
Indiana University, Kelly School of Business, Department of Accounting
& Information Systems, 1309 East Tenth Street, Bloomington,
IN 47405, email: amassey@indiana.edu
Abstract. A total of 411 subjects participated in two
decision-making experiments in order to examine the effectiveness
of new product development project continuation decisions. Using
escalation of commitment theory, in Study 1, individual versus
face-to-face team decision-making effectiveness was compared.
Study 2, an extension of Study 1, compared the new product development
decision-making effectiveness of individuals, face-to-face teams,
and virtual teams. A virtual team is a geographically and temporally
dispersed and electronically communicating work group. In Study
2, the virtual teams communicated asynchronously via groupware
technology. Our findings suggest that teams make more effective
decisions than individuals, and virtual teams make the most effective
decisions.
Subject Areas: Computer-mediated Communication Systems,
Multivariate Statistics, Product Development, Product Planning,
Project Management, and Strategic Decision Making. |