Establishing relationships with distant suppliers to explore discontinuous innovation

Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini () and Florence Charue-Duboc
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Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini: GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Florence Charue-Duboc: CRG I3 - Centre de recherche en gestion i3 - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - Université Paris-Saclay - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: A controversy exists in the literature regarding the type of suppliers to consider when leveraging external knowledge for exploring discontinuous innovation (DI): familiar suppliers or distant ones. We argue that firms pursuing DI should establish relationships with distant suppliers along cognitive and relational dimensions and that this requires a specific process. Based on a longitudinal study of a firm that developed such relationships and succeeded in exploring DI, we find that firms can develop such relationships through an approach with three main characteristics: 1) a documented mapping coupling identified DI concepts and their underlying technologies with potential suppliers who master and can provide such technologies; 2) a structured and transparent process supporting mutual and progressive commitment; 3) a specific dedicated entity, separate from the rest of the firm, but at the same time connected to the experts who master the internal knowledge to be combined with the leveraged external knowledge as well as the top managers who will make the decisions regarding further development of the explored opportunities for DI. Simultaneous cooperation with both distant and familiar suppliers enables firms to achieve ambidextrous sourcing and pursue both incremental innovation and DI.

Keywords: discontinuous innovation; early supplier involvement; distant search; open innovation; exploration; ambidextrous organisation; Discontinuous innovation; ambidextrous organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03052992v1
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Published in International Journal of Technology Management, 2019, 81 (3/4), pp.143-165. ⟨10.1504/IJTM.2019.105320⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03052992

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2019.105320

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