Lisa Melander

Variation of purchasing’s involvement: case studies of supplier collaborations in new product development

Firms are increasingly involving suppliers in new product development (NPD) and one reason for this is to access technological knowledge. Previous research argues that purchasing fulfils an important role in involving the suppliers in NPD. However, purchasings role under technological uncertainty has not been investigated in detail. The purpose of this paper is to explore purchasings role in technology selection, supplier selection and level of participation in NPD projects involving suppliers. Three NPD projects at one large high-tech firm are studied. The results show that purchasing has limited influence in the technology selection process, but fulfils an important role in the selection of the supplier and has a role as a trouble-shooter throughout the collaborative NPD projects. Purchasing does not necessarily need to be involved in solving daily, routine problems, but serves as a trouble-shooter to solve problems related to the suppliers strategy, the relationship with the supplier, and commitment issues.

In pursuit of control: involving suppliers of critical technologies in new product development

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of management and control in collaborations with suppliers of critical technology.Design/methodology/approach – Three collaborative pr ...

Impact of technological uncertainty in supplier selection for NPD collaborations: literature review and a case study

This paper combines a literature review and a case study of supplier selection for new product development (NPD) collaboration to illustrate the impact of technological uncertainty and how firms co ...

Integrating supplier knowledge in new product development projects: decoupled and coupled approaches

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterize knowledge integration approaches for integrating external knowledge of suppliers into new product development projects. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a multiple, in-depth case study of six product development projects at three knowledge-intensive manufacturing firms. Findings Firms make purposeful choices to devise knowledge integration approaches when working in collaborative buyer-supplier projects. The knowledge characteristics of the supplier input guide the choice of either coupling knowledge sharing and combining across firms or decoupling knowledge sharing (across firms) and knowledge combining (within firms). Research limitations/implications The study relies on a limited number of case studies and considers only one supplier relationship in each project. Further studies could examine the challenge of knowledge integration in buyer-supplier relationships in different contexts, i.e., in relation to innovation complexity and uncertainty. Practical implications Managers need to make choices when designing knowledge integration approaches in collaborative product development projects. The use of coupled and decoupled approaches can help balance requirements in terms of joint problem-solving across firms, the efficiency of knowledge integration, and the risks of knowledge leakage. Originality/value The conceptualization of knowledge integration as knowledge sharing and knowledge combining extends existing perspectives on knowledge integration as either a transfer of knowledge or as revealing the presence of pertinent knowledge without entirely transmitting it. The findings point to the complexity of knowledge integration as a process influenced by knowledge characteristics, perspectives on knowledge, openness of firm boundaries, and elements of knowledge sharing and combining. Key words Knowledge Integration; New Product Development; Supplier; Coupled; Decoupled; Sharing; Combining; Case Study