The timing of diverse external stakeholder involvement during interfirm open innovation: The effects on new product speed to market and product lifespan

This research investigates when the involvement of diverse external stakeholders increases the speed to market for new products or garners new products with a longer lifespan in the marketplace. The conceptual foundation examines interfirm open innovation as the involvement of diverse business-to-business (B2B) stakeholders during three distinct stages of new product development (NPD): exploration, transformation, and commercialization. The hypotheses are tested by collecting survey data from managers and executives who are responsible for NPD at their respective firms. Results from Partial Least Squares analysis suggest that a higher diversity of B2B stakeholder involvement during the exploration and transformation phases of NPD is associated with slower speed to market but increased product lifespan. In contrast, a higher diversity of B2B stakeholder involvement during the commercialization phase helps accelerate new products to market yet has an adverse influence on product lifespan. In addition, these results are corroborated using qualitative data collected from interviews with product development professionals. The findings from this multi-method research offer implications for when to engage diverse external stakeholders to improve new product performance.