6. Discussion and conclusions
This study illustrates the importance of ACAP in high technology firms that heavily rely on R&D investment in new product projects. The finding extends existing theory by examining how various characteristics of cross-functional communication influence ACAP in NPD teams. The results show that communication frequency, quality, and informality are positively related to ACAP. Theoretically, this is reasonable since communication among NPD team members should result in higher team's ACAP. Teams with high frequency and quality of communication across functional areas could better acquire, assimilate, transform, and apply external knowledge into NPD tasks. Moreover, informal communication, such as talks and conversations during lunch breaks and after-work dinners, can also promote ACAP in an NPD team. When team members talk freely, they can actively and effectively learn and utilize the knowledge from each other to accomplish their tasks (Akgun, Byrne, Keskin, Lynn, & Imamoglu, 2005). In addition, this research further attempts to investigate absorptive capacity by extending and empirically validating the conceptual distinction between PCAP and RCAP. Interestingly, further data analysis shows that these two dimensions can only be enhanced by the quality of communication and informal communication. It can thus be suggested that NPD team leaders should improve communication quality and informality to enhance the ability of knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and application of the team.
