Collaborative innovation with suppliers: a conceptual model for characterising supplier contributions to NPD

摘要

It is widely acknowledged that suppliers contribute positively to innovation in New Product Development (NPD). However, it remains rather unclear what suppliers actually contribute to innovation. Based on a literature review focusing on 80 articles and a focus group meeting with strategic purchasing managers, a conceptual framework is developed categorising different supplier inputs to innovation. This model is formulated by characterising supplier inputs on a component level and an architectural level, related to knowledge extension and knowledge reconfiguration, respectively. Further, supplier inputs can be incremental or radical in nature, resulting in either a dependence on the supplier's process knowledge or the supplier's technology knowledge. These situations imply different conditions for knowledge integration.