Communication Practices in Inter-Organisational Product Development

Geographically distributed, inter-organisational product development projects are becoming increasingly common. However, companies face challenges in managing this kind of complicated projects. Most of the challenges are related to communication. This study focused on communication needs, problems and practices in distributed interorganisational product development projects. The main objective was to identify and describe successful communication practices. In addition, the study aimed to increase the understanding of the communication needs behind the practices, as well as to identify communication problems and unsuccessful practices. From the methodological point of view, studying daily communication in distributed projects is challenging. In this study we experimented with the usage of social process simulation as a tool to study communication. Methodologically, the research was a qualitative multiple-case study consisting of 12 case projects. The cases were grouped into two separate studies according to the industry. Study