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The purpose of this paper is to report on research into the impact of two sequential dimensions of strategic purchasing – purchasing recognition and purchasing involvement – on the development and deployment of dynamic capabilities. The authors also examine how such dynamic capabilities impact on both cost and innovation performance, and how their effects differ for service as opposed to manufacturing firms.

The authors test hypotheses using structural equation modeling of survey data from 309 manufacturing and service firms.

From a dynamic capability perspective, the analysis supports the positive relationships between purchasing recognition, purchasing involvement, and dynamic capability in the form of knowledge scanning. The authors also find support for the positive impact of knowledge scanning on both cost and innovation performance. From a contingency perspective, data supports hypothesized differences caused by industry, whereby service-based firms experience stronger positive linkages in our model than manufacturing-based firms. Finally, emerging from the data, the authors explore a re-enforcing effect from cost performance to purchasing involvement, something that is in line with the dynamic capabilities perspective but not typically addressed in operations management (OM) research.

The research offers a number of theoretical and managerial contributions, including being one of a relative few examples of empirical assessment of dynamic capability development and deployment; examining the enablers of dynamic capability in addition to the more commonly addressed performance effect; assessing the contingency effect of firm type for dynamic capabilities; and uncovering a return (re-enforcing) effect between performance and enablers of dynamic capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the literature on learning in the context of boundary spanning innovation in supply chains. A two-dimensional framework is proposed: the learning stage (exploration, assimilation, exploitation) and the learning facet (structural, cultural, psychological and policy). Supply chain management (SCM) practices are examined in light of this framework and propositions for further empirical research are developed.

In total, 60 empirical papers from the major journals on supply chain relationships published over an 11-year time span (2000-2010) were systematically analyzed.

The paper reveals a comprehensive set of best practices and identifies four gaps for future research. First, assimilation and exploitation are largely ignored as mediating learning stages between exploration and performance. Second, knowledge brokers and reputation management are key mechanisms that foster assimilation. Third, the iteration from exploitation back to exploration is critical though underdeveloped in efficiency seeking supply chains. Fourth, the literature stresses structural mechanisms of learning, at the expense of a more holistic view of structural, cultural, psychological and policy mechanisms.

The search could be extended to other journals that report on joint learning and innovation.

The framework provides guidelines for practitioners to develop learning capabilities and leverage the knowledge from supply chain partners in order to continuously or radically improve boundary spanning processes and products.

The study is multi-disciplinary; it applies a model developed by learning scholars to the field of SCM.

The aim of this paper is to develop a multidisciplinary approach towards supply chain partnering to increase sensitivity for providing more powerful explanations of this complex, dynamic and sometimes paradoxical phenomenon.

The methodology employed is conceptual theory development, grounded upon transaction cost economics, organizational design, and organization behaviour theory.

The main concerns of partnering are appropriation, coordination and adaptation. The relative importance of each concern varies depending on the partnership's stage of development. The paper argues that the different bodies of literature each emphasize a different concern. Consequently, the multidisciplinary approach developed has a temporal nature and the three mentioned bodies of literature fit in different stages with associated concerns.

Propositions for empirical testing are developed, regarding, for example, the impact of adaptation on the risk of appropriation.

Understanding the interrelation between the different concerns can increase the success of a partnership.

The temporal approach contributes by drawing a full picture of supply chain partnering, which is not obtained by viewing each one of its constituting bodies of literature in isolation.

There are two major objectives in the research. First, the authors investigate the impact of knowledge integration in terms of joint decision-making and joint sense-making, on relational performance, including operational efficiency and innovation. Second, the authors examine the key antecedents that might facilitate knowledge integration: strategic supply management and trust. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper expands and tests theory drawing upon survey data from 133 buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs). The authors employed a two-step process of analysis to evaluate first the measurement model and then the structural model. The measurement model test built upon confirmatory factor analysis, while the structural model quality test built upon path analysis.

The results suggest that both integrative mechanisms, joint decision making and joint sense making, affect performance although in different ways. This study also finds that while trust has multiple significant influences and consequently must be viewed as an organizing principle, strategic supply management is required to jointly understand the dynamic and complex context but not to jointly make ongoing decisions.

Three limitations: first, this study was cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. Second, in line with accepted practice, the authors surveyed only one side of the relationship. The suppliers’ viewpoint is thus not fully taken into account. Third, another potential limitation of the study is that the sample stems from just one country and its size does not distinguish subgroups in the analysis of the path model.

Managers should be advised that: first, a trusting partnership built on knowledge integration is a hard order, especially with a new, unknown supplier in a low-cost country, where intellectual property protection is less obvious; second, strategic supply management may not improve cost or operational performance, but in its absence, it is unlikely that a supplier has insight into the exact needs of its buyer and thus, may not add considerable value to their customers; third, building a dynamic knowledge integration capability (valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate) takes time, as does creating reliable learning mechanisms. Joint teams, visit partners’ workplace, early involve suppliers in developing new products or selection of supplier with high-learning capabilities may help to create a knowledge integration capability.

The authors suggest that companies should move from an arm-length relationship and turn their supplier relationships into a tool for innovating faster while cutting cost. In order to do this, joint sense-making and joint decision should be seen as institutionalized inter-firm routines rather than ad hoc activities. Thus, the authors recommend managers to proactively build certain knowledge-based capabilities that hinges heavily upon a strategic stance toward supply management and trustful relationships with selected suppliers.

The major intent of this research is to expand understanding of knowledge integration by building a more testable, complex model around its creation. While previous research relied on a configuration approach to explore the relationship between knowledge integration and performance, the authors evaluate causal relationships at the level of the formative dimensions rather than higher order knowledge integration, as this has proven to be a superior analytical method. Second, although supply chain scholars have expressed great interest in trust, an in-depth examination of prior studies in knowledge integration indicate that trust has been analyzed alone. In contrast, the study empirically examines the simultaneous effect of trust and strategic supply management in BSRs.

This paper aims to develop the concept of interorganizational adaptation (IOAD) in customer‐supplier dyads, and more specifically its behavioral dimension and its main impacting factor constituted by power.

Building on social capital literature, the paper develops a comprehensive classification of behavioral IOAD. The proposed cognitive, relational and structural sub‐dimensions are explored through an embedded multi‐case study in the European food industry. Data are collected at both sides of the dyads, providing a rich account of supply chain partnering.

The cases show that acknowledgement and understanding of the behavioral dimension of IOAD, besides the more elaborate technical dimension, aids in explaining several paradoxical situations. Furthermore, the case data confirm the projected relationship between power and technical IOAD; dominated relationships present unilateral technical IOAD, whereas reciprocal relationships present bilateral technical IOAD. Analysis of a deviant case, however, suggests that the impact of power is weakened by the presence of behavioral IOAD.

A longitudinal rather than the cross‐sectional research design used might shed additional light on the phenomenon. Nonetheless, the relationship age of the six cases varies from three to 50 years providing data related to different stages of partnering.

The paper fosters practitioners' attention for behavioral aspects of supply chain partnering in order to understand actual successes and failures.

The paper shows that social capital theory contributes to one's understanding of IOAD.

At the heart of realizing superior product development there seems to be the development of organizational mechanisms that fuel team vision. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to build and empirically test a conceptual model (input‐process‐output) of team vision at the product development level to establish the relationship between the contextual antecedents such as trust and learning culture (inputs), team vision (process) and product development performance in terms of process outcomes (i.e. team effectiveness) and product outcomes (i.e. value to customer).

Evidence is drawn from a sample of 80 Spanish product developments. Data are analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis based on composite scores, supported by Lisrel.

Results show that team vision in combination with an organizational context, built upon a learning culture and trust, has a positive impact on product development performance. This influence is higher in terms of process outcomes than in terms of product outcomes. Also, the impact of learning culture on team vision and performance is higher than the impact of trust.

The findings open up new research questions about the role of team vision within product development. Research studies taking into account the development of an organizational context that promotes trust‐based relationships and a learning culture would be helpful in order to draw further conclusions.

The paper provides managers with convincing evidence of the need to foster team vision in product development.

The paper reduces the relative lack of empirical work within existing models about team vision and extends the existing research on team vision to the product development level.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze research methodologies and publication trends across geographical regions in the field of supply chain innovation (SCI) and provide a discussion of future research in the SCI.

Using a content analysis approach, this paper investigates 26 years of SCI research based on a sample of 473 journal articles published in 77 peer-reviewed international journals.

There has been an increasing focus on empirical quantitative research design as compared to empirical qualitative, conceptual quantitative and conceptual qualitative designs in the field of SCI. Continued research interest in SCI from all parts of the world including North America, Europe and Asia illustrates the importance of SCI in the broader field of management.

The inclusion of a large number of journals provides greater confidence in the identified trends. However, as the top-tier journals publish only the most rigorous studies, considering all journals as equally weighted will give rise to a mixed pool of studies. Identifying trends from this mixed pool may provide more comprehensiveness at the cost of inclusion of non-core journals of the field.

The current study builds a holistic view of the methodological progress made so far in the field of SCI.