The high-tech market is characterized by market uncertainty, technology uncertainty and rapid change. To survive in this risky high-tech market, a company must create competitively effective product development practices that meet its own unique needs and circumstances.
One effective practice is cross-functional integration in the product development process. The advantages of integration include a shortened time to market, successful transformation of research results to production, productivity improvement, innovation project success, and high-quality problem solutions. However, these advantages are rarely obtained in the current product development practices of Korean companies. Their product development efforts are generally characterized by time consuming sequential processes, hierarchical organization, and indirect marketing following OEM exports. These are disadvantages for Korean high-tech companies competing with foreign advanced companies in the international markets.
To meet the competitive challenges of the global high-tech market, Korean companies must improve their product development practices with new product development tools, cross-functional integration, product development process overlap, and new company cultures
