Date of Award

Winter 2-18-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

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First Advisor

Zafar Iqbal

Second Advisor

James A. Mourey

Third Advisor

Charles E. Naquin

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore whether a new product development project’s name and or charter effects commitment of senior management sponsors, product development team members and project leaders to the project. Leveraging signaling, internal marketing and imprinting theory to influence internal stakeholder project commitment, I executed three studies to 1) evaluate the validity of my research, 2) identify strong and weak project names, and strong and weak project charters, and 3) a 2x2 between-subjects experiment to test the main effect of project name, the main effect of project charter, and the interaction effect of project charter strength on the relationship between project name and stakeholder commitment. A significant main effect of project name for team member commitment is found however, the effect is a reversal of that which was hypothesized. A main effect of project charter for sponsor, team member, and leader commitment, and overall approval is found. While a significant interaction effect between project name and project charter on internal stakeholder commitment is not found, for the subgroup (n=45) of lower years overall professional experience the interaction between project name and charter on project leader commitment is significant, pointing to the need of further research. Additional research into the project name main effect on team member commitment is also suggested, to uncover what project names are considered strong cues of project success. This study provides a contribution towards both theoretical and practitioner advancements in new product development research by instigating examination of the role project name and project charter may have on internal stakeholder project commitment.

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