The impact of customer knowledge capability and relational capability on new product development performance in Taiwan´s hospitals

New product development (NPD) has been the critical pathway to strengthening their competitive advantage for knowledge intensive organizations. This study intends to explore the impact of the customer knowledge integration capability (CKIC), customer knowledge absorptive capability (CKAC), customer knowledge creation capability (CKCC), and customer relationship capability (CRC) on NPD performance for hospitals from customer knowledge and customer relationship perspectives. Self-report questionnaires were sent out to 460 hospitals in Taiwan accredited as district hospitals and above. 185 valid questionnaires were returned in three months. After testing the fitness of sample representativeness, nonresponse error, common method variance, reliability, and validity, we adopt structure equation model to test the research model. Empirical results indicate the CKAC of a hospital is positively associated with NPD performance, and fully mediates the relationship between CKIC and NPD performance. However, CRC and CKAC both have positive influence on CKCC, but CKCC of a hospital does not produce a statistically significant impact on NPD performance. Customer knowledge capabilities are indeed important factors in NPD performance.