Concurrent Engineering, Knowledge Management, and Product Innovation

Abstract Evidence has shown that organizations seldom achieve the advantages offered by concurrent engineering (CE) practices. This may be attributed to the fact that the concept of CE is vague in terms of core elements and needs further investigation. In addition, despite the importance of CE and knowledge management in the context of product innovation, empirical investigation in this area is lacking. To this end, the goal of this research is to identify the critical dimensions of CE and empirically investigate the linkages between CE, knowledge management, and firm’s innovation. Based on a comprehensive literature review, the study conceptualizes the dimensions of CE as technical and social dimensions. Resource-based view of the firm and knowledge-based view are used to relate CE dimensions, knowledge management, and product innovation. Structural equation modeling was used for the testing of hypotheses. Empirical testing of the hypotheses was carried out by collecting data from 220 pharmaceutical firms operating in India. The findings of the study indicate that social dimensions of CE had a significant impact on knowledge management. Interestingly, the technical dimensions of CE did not have a significant impact on knowledge management. Furthermore, knowledge management was found to have a significant impact on product innovation. The implications of the findings for academicians and practitioners are discussed and directions for further research are also presented