A Tale of Two Worlds: Marketing-R&D Integration in New Product Development

This study adopts a social comparison perspective and examines the perceptual differences of marketing and R&D departments in the context of new product development (NPD). Specifically, each department’s proficiency relative to the other department is a driver of Marketing-R&D integration (MRI). Using a survey from marketing and R&D executive dyads, we find that: each department perceives MRI differently, and the effect of relative proficiency on MRI is positive for marketing, yet negative for the R&D department (H1). Marketing’s influence within the firm weakens (H2) while the perceptual gap between Marketing and R&D department over marketing’s influence strengthens (H3) the relationship for marketing, while no significant effect of power dynamics is observed for R&D. A follow-up experiment serves a calibration tool for debiasing these asymmetric effects of appraisals and provides managers with insights to understand another department’s thought world and enhance new product performance. 

Biography

Ayşegül Özsomer is Professor of Marketing at Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye.  She specializes in global marketing, branding, emerging markets and the role of marketing in tough economic times. She has taught, consulted, and conducted research in the US before joining Koç University. She has published in top scholarly journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of International Marketing and Human Resource Management. She is the recipient of the 2011 Gerald Hills Best Paper Award for ten-year impact on entrepreneurship research, the 2013 Cavusgil Award for her paper investigating the interplay between global and local brands, the 2023  Cavusgil Award for her paper on marketing agility (https://www.ama.org/s-tamer-cavusgil-award/). Ayşegül has held visiting scholar positions at the Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA, and Harvard University. Her co-authored book, The New Emerging Market Multinationals: Four Strategies for Disrupting Markets and the Competition (McGraw Hill) was selected the best strategy book by Business+Strategy. She is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of International Marketing, an American Marketing Association Journal published by SAGE. https://www.ama.org/press-releases/aysegul-ozsomer-selected-as-next-journal-of-international-marketing-editor-in-chief/. Most recently, she received the 2025 Significant Contributions to Global Marketing Award, which honors a scholar who has made exceptional contributions to the field of global marketing.