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In the contemporary business environment, companies must constantly consider methods to enhance their competitive advantage and create value for their customers. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model based on a business ecosystem view. Within a business ecosystem, the authors identified the key factors of co-development and the manner in which these factors affect a company’s innovation performance.

The theoretical hypotheses are confirmed by partial least squares analysis of survey responses collected from information and communication technology (ICT) and hotel industries in Taiwan.

In both industries, the results suggest that a firm’s co-development within its own ecosystem has positive effects on innovation performance. For companies in the ICT industry, collaborative networks and partner selection have significant impacts on the firms’ co-development, but their information technology (IT) capability does not; in contrast, in the hotel industry, partner selection and IT capability have significant impacts on firm co-development, but their collaborative network does not.

This study contributes to the literature of business ecosystem and co-development by offering a co-development model. As both conceptual and empirical research on this topic is still underdeveloped, this study provides fresh insights into collaboration management and offers significant theoretical and managerial implications from a business ecosystem perspective.

Innovations in business-to-business markets often result from co-development activities between multiple actors, all of which have their own goals for the collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to study how the actors’ divergent goals reflect on their perceptions of the supplier-customer co-development process.

A grounded theory approach is adopted to reveal the actors’ perceptions of eight studied supplier-customer co-development processes, of which, four also involve an expert partner.

The findings suggest that because of the supplier’s aim to commercialize the resulting product, a supplier has a wider ranging perception of the co-development process, whereas the customer and expert partner focus on those phases that support their goals to improve the efficiency of the process or to develop new technology.

As each actor operates according to its own goals and is involved in those phases of the process that facilitates their achievement, the study recommends that managers consider each actor’s goals which are reflected on their perception of the co-development.

This is among the first studies to focus on the co-development process from multiple perspectives and include data from various actors involved in the process. The paper contributes to the co-development literature both by presenting actors’ divergent perspectives on the process and proposing an empirically grounded dyadic framework of the supplier-customer co-development process.

The paper aims to advance knowledge by investigating the main factors that impact on innovation through the co-development process between researchers and firms at the very early stage of proof of concept.

The authors developed an empirical analysis on the proof of concept network project, through a mixed empirical analysis. They explored the main factors that affect the enactment of the co-development process and tested the impact of such factors on the probability for partners to enact a co-development project and generate innovation.

From the quantitative analysis comes out that the trust of the research team into the potentiality of the technology, the commitment of researchers concerning the scalability of technology and the IP value issued by external experts have a positive impact on the probability to create a match among partners and generate innovation.

Even if all the population of technologies (108) considered in the project implementation are analyzed, the development of the empirical analysis on a specific project within a single country represents a limitation. Future analysis will concentrate on a larger panel of proof of concept experience across Europe.

The success of a co-development process between researchers and companies at the embryonic phase of the technology considers the opportunity to exploit the technologies into real products for the market.

This is an empirical analysis of the first Italian proof of concept implementation that deeply investigates which critical factors can enable innovation by enacting a co-development process between researchers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

While the beneficial impact of supply chain integration (SCI) and modular product design are generally acknowledged, few empirical studies have examined how an organization can achieve better performance through SCI with modular product design. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between SCI and modular product design, as well as their impact on product performance.

By surveying 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong, structural equation modelling is used to test the research constructs and the hypothesized model.

The results confirm that information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination are crucial organizational processes within SCI. Companies that have high levels of product modularity appear to be good at product co‐development and organizational coordination directly and at information sharing indirectly. Furthermore, companies that have high levels of product co‐development or product modularity appear to have better product performance.

This paper theoretically and empirically identifies three specific organizational processes within SCI (information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination), which affect modular product design and product performance. These more specific findings were previously absent from the literature. However, the study is limited to the cross‐sectional nature of a survey study, the operationalization of SCI and product modularity, and the nature of the product types.

This paper empirically examines the relationships between SCI and product modularity, which has seldom been attempted in previous research. It clearly identifies exactly which processes within SCI are directly and indirectly related to product modularity.

There has been a recent surge of enthusiasm within the automotive industry to build closer supplier relationships within the area of product development. One concept deemed central to these relationships is the alignment of development processes between the collaborating organizations, an area that is expanded upon within this paper. We suggest that synchronization can be achieved through the four key steps of process standardization, knowledge sharing, alignment of existing practices, and continuous elimination of waste within the joint development cycles. A methodology for implementing these stages is presented along with the underlying principles on which it is based – the importance of joint teamworking and multi‐company involvement within the alignment process is highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the governance of inter-firm co-development in an open innovation setting and show how a stage-gate product development process can be used to support this relationship.

The authors adopt a qualitative case-study approach informed by ethnomethodology. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews and document analysis.

They found that in an open innovation setting – where the producing partner relies on a research partner for all product development activities – a stage-gate product development process can act as a governance mechanism, as it enables the development of trust and cooperation which supports the co-development relationship.

The implication of this finding is that a stage-gate process can be a flexible governance mechanism, which can adapt over time in relation to the needs of the co-development partners in an open innovation setting. This also lays the groundwork for future research to explore the applicability of this tool in other settings, e.g. outsourcing arrangements as well as help guide the design and implementation of future governance mechanisms.

In the context of accounting research, this paper helps practitioners and academics understand how a stage-gate process can be used as a governance mechanism to manage and control co-development projects in an open innovation setting.

The purpose of the paper is to develop and test a contingency model of buyer involvement when developing new products in technology-based industrial markets. Information Dissemination and degree of product co-development are identified as two behavioral dimensions of seller–buyer relationships. Further, the paper proposes that perceived buyer knowledge, innovation discontinuity, product customization and technological uncertainty moderate the impact of the behavioral dimensions on sellers’ relationship satisfaction.

The paper uses moderated regression on a data set of 296 small and mid-sized firms in a variety of high-tech industries to test relevant hypotheses.

The authors find that sellers can enhance relationship satisfaction by engaging in either unilateral or bilateral relationships. This is important because sellers have to be judicious in expending their relationship resources. While information dissemination is more satisfying when targeting less knowledgeable buyers, product co-development enhances satisfaction when targeting more knowledgeable buyers. Similarly, information dissemination can enhance satisfaction for discontinuous innovations; in contrast, product co-development has a similar outcome for customized products. However, when technological uncertainty is high, such co-development leads to reduced satisfaction.

Extant literature provides useful insights on the behavioral dimensions of seller–buyer relationships, the antecedents and consequences of such relationships and the stages of the new product development process when such relationships are more valuable. Despite this progress, important gaps remain in current understanding of seller–buyer relationships. In particular, findings regarding the contribution of relationships to desired outcomes are inconsistent. This suggests that important moderators of the relationship–outcomes link are being overlooked and warrant greater attention. This paper addresses this deficiency.

This paper aims to examine how an organization can achieve higher performance through integrating supply chain product co‐development (SCPC) and modular product design.

Based on a comprehensive review of literature on product development, supply chain management and system theory, the four proposed hypotheses concerning the relationships among SCPC, product modularity (PM), manufacturing capabilities and product performance (PP) were tested empirically through a sample of 251 Hong Kong manufacturers.

SCPC is found to have a direct and positive relationship with PM and PP. PM improves flexibility and customer service and in turn PP.

Given the cross‐sectional nature of the study and the focus on manufacturing industry, future research should replicate this study in different industries with more longitudinal studies.

The study provides solid evidence that managers should involve their suppliers, internal functional units and customers early in their design stages, especially in the decisions relating to PM. The study has also demonstrated that product co‐development affects PP in both direct and indirect ways.

The present study empirically verifies the relationships between supply chain integration and modular product design by means of SCPC and PM. Similar empirical research is absent from the literature on relevant disciplines.

The issue of collaborative development is increasingly recognized as one of the next major frontiers for improving the process of product innovation and development. Many companies now see enormous potential in leveraging the extended value chain as they deliver solutions to customers. Yet, while collaboration with partners – a close relationship in which another party contributes a significant portion of the end solution – is taking on a greater strategic importance, the landscape is strewn with failed attempts.

The involvement of clients in service encounters and service development has become a central principle for contemporary health and social care organizations. However, in day-to-day work settings, the shift toward client involvement is still in progress. We examined how health and social care professionals, together with clients and managers, co-develop their conceptions of client involvement and search for practical ways in which to implement these in organizational service processes.

The empirical case of this study was a developmental intervention, the client involvement workshop, conducted in a Finnish municipal social and welfare center. The cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) framework was used to analyze the development of client involvement ideas and the modes of interaction during the intervention.

Analysis of the collective discussion revealed that the conceptions of client involvement developed through two interconnected object-orientations: Enabling client involvement in service encounters and promoting client involvement in the service system. The predominant mode of interaction in the collective discussion was that of “coordination.” The clients' perspective and contributions were central aspects in the turning points from coordination to cooperation; professionals crossed organizational boundaries, and together with clients, constructed a new client involvement-based object. This suggests that client participation plays an important role in the development of services.

The CHAT-based examination of the modes of interaction clarifies the potential of co-developing client-involvement-based services and highlights the importance of clients' participation in co-development.