Strategic and Operational Management of Supplier Involvement in New Product Development: a Contingency Perspective

This paper examines how firms succeed to leverage supplier involvement in product development. The paper extends earlier work on managing supplier involvement by providing an integrated analysis of results, processes and conditions both at the level of individual development projects and the overall firm. Following a multiple-case study approach with theoretical sampling, the study is carried out by examining eight projects in which four manufacturers from different industries involve multiple suppliers. The findings suggest that successful supplier involvement is dependent on the coordinated design, execution and evaluation of strategic, long-term processes and operational, short-term management processes and the presence of enabling factors such as a cross-functional oriented organization. The required intensity of these processes and enablers depends on contingencies such as firm size and environmental uncertainty. In contrast with previous research, we find no indications that managing supplier involvement requires a different approach in highly innovative projects compared to less innovative projects.innovation;new product development;purchasing;supplier relations;R&D management

Creating corporate advantage through purchasing

This session explains how Chief Purchasing Officers (CPOs) may effectively capture purchasing synergies by tailoring their coordination and governance structures on the maturity of the purchasing function and the level of corporate coherence

Purchasing portfolio usage and purchasing sophistication

Purchasing portfolio models have caused considerable controversy in literature. Many advantages and disadvantages have been put forward, revealing a strong disagreement on the merits of portfolio models. This study addresses the question whether or not the use of purchasing portfolio models should be considered as a sign of purchasing sophistication. Using data from a broad sample of industries, it was found that purchasing sophistication is a two-dimensional construct: purchasing’s professionalism and purchasing’s position within companies. After controlling for firm size, the position and the professionalism of purchasing were both positively related to the greater use of the purchasing portfolio. Findings indicate that portfolio usage indeed is a sign of purchasing sophistication

Waarde creëren in de keten : over marktgerichtheid, innovatie en duurzaamheid

Een verslag van ketenonderzoek naar de rol van leveranciers bij het vergroten van bedrijfssucces

Managing supplier relationships in a new product development context

Organizations can no longer rely solely on their own resources to innovate and look for strategic interactions beyond their organizational boundaries, allowing them to improve the quality of their own internal resources by investing in core competencies while contracting out other knowledge domains. From a theoretical perspective the focus of research has shifted towards supplier relationship management (SRM) and early supplier involvement in new product development (NPD). Even though much research has been done in these areas, a more comprehensive study investigating the constructs that determine the quality of a relationship still has to be done. Furthermore, the existing research has largely focused either on the role of SRM with regard to NPD performance or on knowledge transfer and its impact on NPD performance. Research encompassing these two important aspects of the NPD process is still lacking. Thirdly, our study expands the field of research beyond the automotive industry, by focusing on consumer product industry. Lastly, how SRM affects knowledge transfer and in turn NPD performance has yet not been researched. Our findings confirm the positive relationship between relationship quality, knowledge transfer and NPD performance. Managing supplier relationships leads to a higher quality relationship which contributes to the performance of NPD projects. Secondly, a total of thirteen constructs have been identified to be decisive for the quality of a relationship. These constructs act on either an individual or organizational level. Our study underlines the importance of supplier relationship management in a NPD context and the developed research model can be used to predict the performance of a NPD project by measuring the quality of the relationship between buyer and supplier on these thirteen constructs

Professionalising purchasing organisations : towards a purchasing development model

How does purchasing develops as a discipline over time in large international organisations? What are the drivers and enablers behind the development of purchasing? Is there an ideal growthpath for purchasing in organisations? These subjects are discussed in this paper by, firstly, providing an overview of current literature and analysing the models which have been published in management literature. Based on our analysis we propose an integrated framework which may help practitioners in developing their future courses of action with regard to purchasing and supply strategy and organisation. Currently, this framework is tested through empirical research

Critical processes for managing supplier involvement in new product development : an in-depth multiple-case study

Existing studies of supplier involvement in new product development have mainly focused on project-related short-term processes and success-factors. We will test and refine an analytical framework that identifies both long-term strategic processes and short-term, operational processes that are related to supplier involvement. The empirical part of this paper is based on data from a multiple-case study of supplier collaborations within a manufacturer in the copier and printer industry. Our main findings demonstrate that coherent planning and execution of both strategic and operational sets of activities is critical not only in achieving short-term objectives but also long-term benefits of supplier involvement in product development. This study contributes to the Dynamic Capabilities view by providing a more detailed process-based framework that allows us to examine, to explain and to facilitate prescriptions of how companies can effectively build a competitive advantage in product development from resources controlled or possessed by suppliers