Abstract

This research aims to explore the correlations among the factors of unlearning, knowledge application and new product development performance, including a further verification on the moderating effects of information processing mechanism to “unlearning” and “knowledge application”. The verification process involves multiple factors of the information processing mechanism, such as formalization of rewards for knowledge creation, long-term orientation, R&D budget, and availability of information technology. The design of this research targets manufacture-based companies in Taiwan. A total of 112 valid questionnaires were returned and the research hypotheses were tested by the Structure Equation Model (SEM) and regression analysis. The main findings in this research include the following: (1) Unlearning has significant positive effects on knowledge application and knowledge application also has significant positive effect on new product development performance; (2) Knowledge application is an intervening variable to unlearning and new product development performance; (3) In the test for the moderating effect of variables related to the information processing mechanism, the formalization of rewards for knowledge creation, long-term orientation, and R&D budget show positive moderating effect, but information technology availability did not show a significant moderating effect.

Key words: Unlearning, information processing theory, knowledge application, new product development performance.