Inter-organizational cooperation in automotive new product development projects
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 30 December 2019
Issue publication date: 10 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to formulate and test a theoretical model to explain inter-organizational cooperation behaviors among suppliers in automotive new product development (NPD) projects. This study aims to investigate the effects of cost and benefit factors on trust and inter-organizational cooperative behaviors among suppliers in automotive NPD projects from the perspective of social exchange theory (SET).
Design/methodology/approach
The structural equation modeling method is applied to test the proposed model, which is based on the analysis of survey data from 272 product managers of automotive part suppliers.
Findings
Knowledge sharing and coordination effort influence inter-organizational cooperation indirectly through trust. Specially, trust is negatively influenced by coordination effort but positively affected by knowledge sharing. Requirement uncertainty moderates the relationship between cost–benefit factors and trust differently. Specifically, requirement uncertainty increases the negative influence of coordination effort on trust but also strengthens the positive effect of knowledge sharing on trust.
Originality/value
This study provides a relatively comprehensive cost–benefit framework for further understanding the formation mechanism of inter-organizational cooperation among suppliers. It also contributes to SET by incorporating the contextual factor to explain the moderating effect of requirement uncertainty on the relationships between cost–benefit factors and trust in the context of automotive NPD projects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the experts concerned for their valuable guidance in writing this paper. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Program of China (NSFC) (71731009, 71742005, 71722014, 71471141 and 2018WZDXM020). The authors appreciate the Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities “Big data and Business Intelligent Innovation Team.”
Citation
Zheng, Y., Liu, S., Huang (Wayne), W. and Jiang, J.J.-Y. (2020), "Inter-organizational cooperation in automotive new product development projects", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 120 No. 1, pp. 79-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-04-2019-0217
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited