Marketing involvement in product platform creation: The role of personal and structural coordination mechanisms

Abstract

Integrating market knowledge in the architecture of product platforms can be a challenge for firms. In this study, we draw on knowledge-based theory to propose the importance of bilateral knowledge: a marketer's knowledge of product platforms and a platform architect's knowledge of the market opportunity for securing marketing involvement and platform success. Along with these two personal coordination mechanisms, we examine the impact of a marketing department's level of product platform knowledge as a structural coordination mechanism and account for its moderating effects on these personal mechanisms. To test our model, we conducted a survey at a multinational electronics company, with the architects of product platforms as key informants. Our results show that an architect's knowledge of market opportunities for the product platform fuels marketing's involvement and improves financial performance, as does the marketer's knowledge of product platforms, although this is entirely mediated by marketing's involvement. A marketing department's product platform knowledge has a strong, direct and moderating impact; it acts as a substitute for the individual marketer's personal knowledge, yet enhances the impact of the architect's knowledge of the market opportunity. Therefore, innovation managers are advised to foster their marketing department's understanding of product platforms.