Functional Diversity and Performance in U.S. and Korean Product Development: Cultural Variation or Competitive Convergence?

This paper examines competing theoretical explanations for the relationship between functional diversity and performance in the electronic industry of the U.S. and Korea during the 1990's. The culturalist perspective predicts that national location moderates the relationships between functional diversity and performance while the culture-free perspective argues that past competitive performance moderates the relationships. We examine these competing explanations in a longitudinal representative sample of 100 product development teams. Our findings provide strong support for the culture-free perspective. We highlight implications for theory, practice, and future research directions.