**2.2. The inter-functional communication role (CA and CQ)**

Extant literature proposes that the amount and difficulty of communication are important aspects of cross-functional interaction, associated with an improved relationship commitment and perceived justice [12, 20, 22].

Given the established importance of cross-functional communication to achieve functional coordination during NPD (e.g., see [20, 23]), we explore two communication dimensions: amount of communication and communication quality. Communication amount (CA) is defined as the intensity of information flow among managers via e-mails, telephone, formal or ad-hoc meetings and reports [20]. Communication quality (CQ)—adapted from Fisher et al. (in Ref. [23]) and Homburg et al. (in Ref. [11])—is defined as the extent to which communication between sales and marketing managers is a bidirectional process of credible, relevant, useful and on-time provided information for a flawless NPD. Massey and Kyriazis [3] found a strong effect of communication frequency and bidirectional communication (a key variable of communication quality). Therefore:

H1 Communication amount is positively related to communication quality between sales and marketing managers.

Extant literature confirmed the importance of communication frequency to promote a more effective relationship between marketing and other departments, through informal conversation and efficient meetings [3, 23, 24].

We therefore hypothesize that:

Extant research of the effectiveness of cross-functional integration in new product development has focused on goal incongruity among marketing, research and development (R&D) and manufacturing, perceived R&D and marketing conflicts or interpersonal trust [3, 4] inter alia. More recently, Wiebmeier et al. [5] introduced the relevance of sales to unlock synergies

The importance of marketing and sales interface has been consistently reported as a key crossfunctional interface to enhance business performance and to create superior customer value

In highly innovative consumer packaged goods companies, business performance is embedded with innovation deployment success and measured by relative market share, sales, profit-

The literature highlights key factors that can either contribute to or hamper the coordinated and collaborative sales-marketing interface [1, 11, 12] inter alia. These studies are based on samples from a specific context of developed economies like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and countries from the European Union, while emerging markets remain underexplored [13–15]. This chapter, instead, studies for the first time the nature of the sales-marketing cross-functional relationship and those factors that contribute to the interface relationship in order to gain in new product deployment (NPD) effectiveness in the six South American

The chapter is organized as follows: after a review of the literature, a theoretical model is developed, followed by the methodology and results' presentation. Finally, conclusions,

The integration of the customer insights at different stages of the innovation process through sales collaboration is a far more effective source of new ideas than are other innovation sources; however, new methods are required [16]. Over the last decade, a number of studies have offered insights into marketing and sales described by Rouziès and Segalla [17] like configurations, orientation and influence, interface revenue and profit implications. Sales and marketing have different perspectives and compete for resources, facing sometimes conflict between the two functions [7, 18]. Malshe and Biemans [9] studied the activities of the interface sales and marketing during the development of new products in early stages; however, the collaboration required during the final deployment stage has not been studied. The sales-marketing cross-function relationship approach considered in this research is established by Rouziès et al. (in Ref. [12], p. 115) as "a dynamic process in which the two functional areas create more value for their firms by working together than they would create by working in isolation." That is to say, activities are consistent and coherent with each other (same goal) and are coordinated over time during innovation deployment

during the innovation process and the customer relationship improvement [6].

(e.g., see [1, 7–9]).

156 Organizational Conflict

process.

ability and objective compliance [10].

countries of a consumer packaged goods global company.

management implications and limitations are presented.

**2. Literature review and theoretical model**

H2 Communication amount is positively related to the perceived relationship effectiveness between sales and marketing managers.

Sales and marketing managers perceive their relationship to be effective if both of them achieve the innovation deployment targets. Fisher et al. (in Ref. [23]) found a positive link between bidirectional communication and the perceived marketing-engineering relationship effectiveness during the innovation process. This effect was confirmed by Massey and Kyriazis ([3] between R&D and marketing managers). We therefore hypothesize that:

H3 Communication quality is positively associated with the perceived relationship effectiveness between sales and marketing managers.
