Effects of Knowledge-sharing Routines and Dyad-based Investments on Company Innovation and Performance: An Empirical Study of Spanish Manufacturing Companies

摘要

In the literature on buyer-supplier relationships, it is commonplace assuming that knowledge exchange leading to shared learning, along with the presence of investments on specialized or relationship-unique assets is a means for enhancing a company s performance (Dyer and Singh 1998; Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000; Gulati and Sytch, 2007 among them). For a firm, the establishment of strong ties is supposed to be a capability of its own in order to engender innovations leading to the achievement of superior business results. In this sense, the purpose of this research is to analyze the factors in the field of customer-supplier relationships that determine the dyads innovative capacity and, ultimately, its results. The main factors deriving from the relationship that are proposed as instigators of innovativeness are the exchange of knowledge leading to shared learning; investments in idiosyncratic or relation-specific assets; and non-specific complementary resources and capabilities. To this end, the proposed hypotheses were tested by means of Structural Equation Modelling analysis from a sample of 106 Spanish manufacturing firms of the Machine Tool and Machinery for Specific Purpose Industries. Data was gathered by means of a telephone survey to a sales, production or management representative in each company. The empirical results confirm that firms with the greatest skill for innovating are capable of generating greater sustainable competitive advantages, which translates into better business results. At the same time, the existence of customer-supplier relationships tends to encourage conduct conducive to the exchange of knowledge, resources and idiosyncratic investments, which have a positive impact on the firm s innovativeness. We also observe that the more committedfirms are to the relationship, the greater the resulting increase in their innovativeness. In this regard, investment in idiosyncratic assets for the customer-supplier relationship and resource-complementarity efforts reinforce the positive influence of knowledge-sharing efforts in improving the supplier s innovativeness.