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In product modular design tasks, especially in the high-tech manufacturing industry, buyers and supplies play distinct roles, which may have different impacts on product architectural and modular innovation. Prior research has tended to view product innovation as a holistic concept, overlooking the importance of this differentiated influence. This study, from a modular design perspective, aims to clarify the impact of black-box supplier involvement on product architectural and modular innovation, as well as the influence of product modularity on these relationships.

Based on the theory of product modular design, this study decomposes product innovation into architectural and modular innovation from the perspective of the product internal structure to conduct in-depth theoretical analysis and model construction. A total of 276 valid questionnaires are collected from typical Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms and used to empirically test the constructed theoretical model using multiple hierarchical regression analysis.

The results show that black-box supplier involvement positively affects modular innovation and takes an inverted U-shape, as moderated by product modularity. However, the impact of black-box supplier involvement on architectural innovation shows contradictory differences at different modularity levels. Under a low level of product modular design, black-box supplier involvement has a negative impact on architectural innovation, but under a moderate level of modular design, it has a positive impact. After the degree of modular design exceeds a certain threshold, the impact gradually weakens.

The results provide valuable insights for managers, highlighting the need to avoid oversimplifying the innovation impact of black-box suppliers solely based on overall product innovation. Instead, a more accurate assessment of the innovation contributions of both the buyer and supplier should be based on the degree of architectural and modular innovation. Additionally, the findings suggest that managers should consider the alignment between their company's product modular design features and innovation priorities (i.e. modular innovation or architectural innovation) when determining an appropriate supplier collaborative development strategy.

This study not only reveals the different impacts of black-box supplier involvement on architectural and modular innovation, but also proves the significant synergistic innovation effect of the relationship between black-box supplier involvement and product modularization. It constitutes an enriched and deepened exploration in the existing research on supplier involvement in product innovation.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect of different forms of service supplier involvement on the service business dimensions necessary for servitisation and on the resulting servitisation performance.

Three different configurations of service supplier involvement are considered in this study: black box (service design and execution driven by the service supplier), grey box (joint service design) and white box (service design driven by the product firm). The study analyses their contribution by means of a cross-sectional quantitative survey with 104 Brazilian and Italian firms using multivariate analysis of variance.

Companies that adopted the grey box configuration presented the best results in servitisation. White and black box may offer different benefits depending on the service business dimension that the company chooses to emphasise.

The results show which type of service supplier involvement is more effective for servitisation. The empirical data demonstrate that a joint service design (grey box involvement) is the best approach, but the paper discusses limitations for its implementation and alternatives regarding the two other types of service supplier involvement. The findings contribute to the discussion on the role of service suppliers in servitisation and provide empirical evidence to support operations managers in deciding on how to organise their service supply chain when aiming for servitisation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe different ways in which a buyer and supplier can be embedded in a dyadic relationship and how these differences influence patterns of inter-firm innovation activities and outcomes. Specifically, to address the relative paucity of theoretical work on how dyadic configurations influence parties’ joint innovation behavior, this study examines how different buyer-supplier embeddedness (BSE) configurations change the four choices that pertain to the levels of involvement buyers and suppliers exhibit in inter-firm innovation activities. These choices concern the processes buyers use to engage suppliers; the scope of efforts in each party; the locus of effects determining the beneficiaries; and the extent to which parties disclose private innovations within the relationship.

Drawing on social embeddedness literature, the authors conceptualize dyad level, BSE in two dimensions: relational and structural. The relational dimension describes the quality of relationship, while the structural dimension describes the intensity of exchanges between the parties. Together these dimensions allow the authors to map the differences in BSE configurations and provide a basis for exploring their links to inter-firm innovation patterns.

The authors demonstrate the configurational approach to the innovation patterns in inter-organizational setting. That is, the authors conclude that different configurations of BSE are likely to produce distinctive patterns of choices for inter-firm innovation activities.

This study applies social embeddedness perspective to conceptualize dyadic BSE. Adoption of this concept allows dimensionalizing the dyadic relationships into two distinct dyadic elements, relational, and structural dimensions. Also, the concept has rich implications for how partner firms interact and share information. The dyad’s innovation potential and patterns are considered based on the configurations of dyadic embeddedness.

This paper aims to propose that knowing in practice can be used as a mechanism to enhance social exchange in collaborative new product development (NPD) with suppliers to reduce glitches. Practic00es of inter-organizational knowing should consider the levels of supplier involvement adopted.

This paper studies two opposite situations of supplier involvement in NPD projects, namely, white and black box configurations. This paper adopts a qualitative comparative analysis method to identify necessary and sufficient configurations of knowing in practice in 36 projects from 3 different companies.

Social exchange is important even when the NPD collaboration is based on contractual relationships as in white and grey box collaborations. There are different combinations of practices for inter-organizational knowing that can limit glitches in each supplier configuration. This paper proposes a theoretical model that explains these relationships and contributions to the reduction of glitches.

This paper combines social exchange theory with knowing in practice in the supplier involvement context. The theoretical model contributes to the understanding of knowing in practice in white and black box configurations.

Organizations are identifying strategic supply chain relationships as a major source for competitive advantage. Interest in the concept is becoming prevalent in many industries, including new product development within the engineering sector. Collaborative supplier relationships are being used in new product development as a tool to share the development burden and reduce the development life cycle. The purpose of this paper is to develop a business process to act as a roadmap for optimum supplier integration.

An Engineering case organisation (Genco Inc.) is explored to provide an understanding of the extent and timing of supplier involvement, within new product development. Subsequently a high level business process is developed to govern early supplier integration, within a product development phase gate model.

The findings suggest and the business model strives to create a more holistic view of supplier integration; extending the scope beyond the individual firm‐centric factors, the paper develops the importance of supplier collaboration, design for supply chain and consideration of the overall value network. The business process creates a move towards defining supplier commodity types pre‐project launch, strategically timing and managing the extent of supplier integration.

The business process can be used to govern supplier integration by categorising commodity type. Each supplier classification can be phased into the development project to maximise the efficiency of development collaboration. The resulting process also acts to share accountability to create future roadmaps and accountability for future competitive advantage.

Currently, to the best of the authors' knowledge, an individual case organisation has not been documented with regards the extent of supplier involvement or timing, nor has an early supplier involvement (ESI) business process been developed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of management and control in collaborations with suppliers of critical technology.

Three collaborative product development projects at a system integrator in the telecom industry were studied. The data was collected through 22 semi-structured interviews and a workshop at the studied company and its suppliers.

The paper shows that in situations of high dependence on suppliers of critical technologies, control may be pursued by complementing black-box development with appropriate checks and balances in the collaboration, i.e. using combinations of control mechanisms, disconnected development and joint problem solving, contracts and trust, and alignment efforts on project and strategic levels. Further, the paper demonstrates that this involves several trade-offs related to the advantages of increased monitoring and disadvantages of decreased levels of freedom for the supplier and consequently decreased prerequisites for supplier creativity.

The qualitative approach of the research limits generalizability. Our study is limited to three projects at one firm.

Technological roadmaps can be used as an important tool to facilitate alignment with suppliers of critical technologies. Limited influence on project level can be supported by influencing the supplier on a strategic level. By collaborating on a strategic level, firms can gain alignment for future projects and diminish the need for direct project control within the projects. Long-term collaborations facilitate control in projects with powerful suppliers of critical technologies.

While many studies suggest simplified responses to complex situations of supplier involvement in product development, this study provides insight into the complex responses to control suppliers of critical technologies.

This paper deals with the organizing of interactive product development. Developing products in interaction between firms may provide benefits in terms of specialization, increased innovation, and possibilities to perform development activities in parallel. However, the differentiation of product development among a number of firms also implies that various dependencies need to be dealt with across firm boundaries. How dependencies may be dealt with across firms is related to how product development is organized. The purpose of the paper is to explore dependencies and how interactive product development may be organized with regard to these dependencies.

The analytical framework is based on the industrial network approach, and deals with the development of products in terms of adaptation and combination of heterogeneous resources. There are dependencies between resources, that is, they are embedded, implying that no resource can be developed in isolation. The characteristics of and dependencies related to four main categories of resources (products, production facilities, business units and business relationships) provide a basis for analyzing the organizing of interactive product development.

Three in-depth case studies are used to explore the organizing of interactive product development with regard to dependencies. The first two cases are based on the development of the electrical system and the seats for Volvo’s large car platform (P2), performed in interaction with Delphi and Lear respectively. The third case is based on the interaction between Scania and Dayco/DFC Tech for the development of various pipes and hoses for a new truck model.

The analysis is focused on what different dependencies the firms considered and dealt with, and how product development was organized with regard to these dependencies. It is concluded that there is a complex and dynamic pattern of dependencies that reaches far beyond the developed product as well as beyond individual business units. To deal with these dependencies, development may be organized in teams where several business units are represented. This enables interaction between different business units’ resource collections, which is important for resource adaptation as well as for innovation. The delimiting and relating functions of the team boundary are elaborated upon and it is argued that also teams may be regarded as actors. It is also concluded that a modular product structure may entail a modular organization with regard to the teams, though, interaction between business units and teams is needed. A strong connection between the technical structure and the organizational structure is identified and it is concluded that policies regarding the technical structure (e.g. concerning “carry-over”) cannot be separated from the management of the organizational structure (e.g. the supplier structure). The organizing of product development is in itself a complex and dynamic task that needs to be subject to interaction between business units.

Reports on two presentations given at the 1994 R&D Management conference organized by Manchester Business School, which highlighted the research being undertaken to study customer‐supplier partnerships – an aspect of the product development process whose importance is now being recognized by Western industry. Outlines past research which graphically illustrated the contrast that existed within the automotive industry between Japanese assemblers′ use of suppliers and that of US and European companies; provides examples of differences and the benefits gained by Japanese companies. Highlights the fact that the automotive industry has changed significantly and new research is being undertaken to examine the present extent of supplier involvement in product design. Provides an emerging picture of UK processes from the data being collected. Other industries also recognize the importance of partnership. Discusses the general findings of ongoing research at two OEMs and their suppliers; reveals practices already found to be conducive to supplier integration.

This paper examines supplier involvement in design based on survey data from 145 Japanese, 189 US and 87 UK automotive component suppliers. First, cross‐national differences in the degree of supplier involvement are examined. Second, regression analysis is used to identify factors which predict high or low levels of supplier involvement in design. Third, the effects of supplier involvement in product development on the degree to which products are designed for manufacturability are assessed. The data show that, contrary to much of the literature that suggests the highest levels of supplier involvement in design are in Japan, suppliers in the USA and UK are more likely to report greater influence on product design decisions, earlier involvement and more frequent communications with customers about design. Moreover, manufacturing planning and design begin later, as a proportion of the development cycle, in Japan than in the USA and the UK. Regression analysis shows that involving suppliers early and giving them influence over design is associated with greater contributions of suppliers to cost reduction, quality improvement and design for manufacturability. Suppliers are given the greatest influence and communication is most intensive for the design of complex subsystems and new designs, and this does not vary by country.

This study aims to explore the conditional relationships between supplier involvement and financial performance. From a problem-solving perspective, this study takes the focal firm as a problem-solving system. It is postulated that supplier involvement enhances financial performance by helping solve complex problems of new product development. Furthermore, product modularity and smartness are considered contingent factors to clarify the boundary conditions.

The ordinary least squares regression was conducted to test the hypotheses based on survey data from 136 high-tech firms in China.

Supplier involvement is positively related to financial performance. Product modularity weakens the impact of supplier involvement on financial performance. Furthermore, product smartness strengthens the negative influence of product modularity on the relationship between supplier involvement and financial performance.

This study combines supplier involvement with product attributes. It takes a problem-solving perspective to rethink suppliers’ roles in new product development as problem-solvers rather than resource holders. Furthermore, this study advances the encapsulation effects of product modularity and smartness to influence the supplier involvement–financial performance link.