Exploring the pathways of learning from project failure and success in new product development teams

In today's business environment, New Product Development (NPD) teams play a pivotal role in propelling innovation. Within NPD teams, both successful and failed projects contribute in enhancing learning processes, yet the epistemological pathways activated by successful projects differ distinctly from those stimulated by failed projects. In this study, we investigate the pathways towards team learning in the context of successful and failed NPD projects using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Drawing from the team learning literature, we examine which configurations of project characteristics (complexity and uncertainty), interpersonal team characteristics (innovation norms, cohesion, and decision-making autonomy), and environmental characteristics (technological and market turbulence) lead to NPD team learning. Our analysis identifies three configurations of factors tied to NPD team learning in successful projects and four configurations in failed projects. In successful projects, project and team characteristics are core in enhancing team learning. In failed projects, together with team characteristics, core conditions are represented by project complexity, uncertainty, while environmental characteristics play a dual role.