Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore communication challenges related to geographic distance, with emphasis on differences in national culture and language between R&D and manufacturing engineers, in a development project faced with uncertainty and equivocality.

Design/methodology/approach: The results originate from a longitudinal single-case study of a commercial product development project.

Findings: Three communication challenges are identified: clarity of shared information, intention to share information, and responsiveness to information received. The challenges are strongly associated with differences in national culture and language. The study also indicates that the communication challenges cannot only be handled by the use of rich communication media, but also by employment of communication media of low richness such as e-mails or “picture books”.

Research limitations/implications: The single-case study approach limits the ability to generalize the findings. Future research should thus focus on additional studies of geographically separated R&D and manufacturing.

Originality/value: The results from the study provide important insights for the management of product development in geographically dispersed settings. The findings emphasize the need to consider potential differences in national culture and language within a product development team. Acknowledging these differences and managing them properly can support efficiency of product development projects.

Although important research has been carried out, knowledge on bridges between the R&D and manufacturing occupational communities in a cross - national context is lacking. Much of the research has emphasized on the different bridges - tools, object, practices, brokers designed by the company to bridge the occupational communities. To lesser extent scholars have observed the emergence of individuals who can assist in bridging occupational communities divided by the boundaries of language and national culture.

Drawing on qualitative interviews with persons belonging to a Swedish large manufacturing company, this paper describes and examines the emergent role of an engineer from an R&D center in China as a mediator of the two occupational communities. Based on community of practice theory, this study regards R&D in Sweden and the manufacturing site in China as members of two interdependent occupational communities that struggle to communicate due to barriers created by geographical distance – i.e. language and cultural distance. The findings suggest that the mediator from the R&D center in China may serve as an appropriate organizational solution in situation where geographical distance exist. The mediator role provides not only technical support, but also helps to crate shared meanings and facilitates the communication between R&D in Sweden and the manufacturing site in China. This study contributes to the R&D management theory by addressing an effective way to facilitate cross-cultural communication between engineers that are geographically distant during new product development.

Many Scandinavian companies choose to invest in new manufacturing facilities in Central European or Asian countries. This complicates the production start-up of both existing and new products. This paper compares production start-ups of new and existing products in a new and off-shore manufacturing facility in Poland. Consequently, the aim is to enhance the understanding of factors critical to achieve the desired production start-up targets. The factors identified in the study are in line with the previous literature. Nonetheless, this study emphasizes on the factors related to people which turned to be of the most importance for the timely production start-up.