A product is the ultimate representation of the capabilities and competencies of a company in an attempt to translate ideas, concepts and perceptions into something concrete. Therefore, developing products is a complex and crucial task for companies, requiring the definition of strategic objectives and intensive use of technology particularly Information Technology (IT). In the quest for continuous improvement and ensuring the continued operation and growing their businesses, organizations have adopted management techniques increasingly sophisticated, including the promotion of Strategic Alignment (SA) between this important and critical business process of product development with the information technologies available to support a process that meets the dynamics of the market. Therefore, this article explores the relationships of the elements of SA under a new light, understanding the SA between business and IT within a business process, the Product Development Process (PDP) as seen by the following reference models: the model of product development Rozenfeld et al. (2006), the strategic alignment model of Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) and the model of strategic drivers of Luftman, Lewis and Oldach (1993). To this end, we developed a multiple case study in three industrial companies located in the south of Brazil, whose data were collected in semi-structured interviews, notes and direct observations. The concept mapping technique was used in order to standardize concepts related to and SA and PDP among participants in each case. Through content and categorical analysis, and coding of all qualitative data we can identify elements of SA and their relationship which might interfere in the cycle of the PDP. The main results show the existence of elements of SA along the PDP; varying strengths of relationships between the elements of the SA and the PDP; relations dependent on the company's strategic choice - be a leader or follower, and the strategic or operational characteristics of PDP as directed by elements of both SA and IT. Due to the non-homogeneity of SA in the different phases of the PDP, one of the main contributions of this research can be a new form of assessment of promoting of SA in PDP as well as its misalignment, within organizations.
Alignment; Strategy; Product; Product development; Information technology
