 Variation of purchasing's involvement: case studies of supplier collaborations in new product developmentLisa Melander and Nicolette Lakemond International Journal of Procurement Management, 2014, vol. 7, issue 1, 103-118 Abstract: 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, purchasing's role under technological uncertainty has not been investigated in detail. The purpose of this paper is to explore purchasing's 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 supplier's strategy, the relationship with the supplier, and commitment issues. Keywords: purchasing; new product development; NPD; supplier management; technology selection; supplier selection; case studies; supplier collaboration; technological uncertainty. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpman:v:7:y:2014:i:1:p:103-118 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Procurement Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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