Market Knowledge Transfer and Time Pressure in new Product Development: the Emergent Role of Knowledge Intermediaries in Fashion Industry

Despite the relatively scarce attention received in literature, the time variable, far from having a neutral effect, may greatly affect the management of market knowledge transfer processes, especially in presence of high cognitive distance between exchanging individuals. These are the conditions that usually occur in many new product development contexts. We argue that the firm’s ability to adapt organizational practices to the time specificity of market knowledge processes can play a key role in improving product innovation performance, especially in those industry settings characterised by high demand variability and market knowledge ambiguity. Within an explorative approach, the paper is based on a qualitative research on knowledge transfer processes involved in the product innovation activity in fashion industry. The findings show that the emergence of knowledge intermediaries can support effectively the knowledge transfer processes and improve the new product development performance. A model to conceptualize the different mechanisms used in managing market knowledge flows is outlined. Finally, some theoretical propositions are advanced about the role of knowledge intermediaries in product innovation organizational settings.