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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the contribution of suppliers and the purchasing department in affecting a firm’s ability to innovate.

The paper develops a theoretical framework (tested through an international survey on a sample of 524 companies) grounded on the resource-based view theory, innovation management and operations management literature.

The results show that innovation is positively affected by supplier collaboration, which in turn is favored by purchasing absorptive capacity. Empirical evidence also shows that purchasing status and innovation objectives enable the development of greater absorptive capacity.

Because of the survey approach, the research results are limited to the data collected. Researchers are encouraged to verify propositions with complementary methodologies (e.g. case studies).

The findings confirm the relevant role of the purchasing interface in innovation as well as the positive impact of supplier collaboration, contributing both to existing literature and managerial practice in terms of successful collaborative new product development (NPD) processes.

The study integrates three different research fields (innovation, operations, and purchasing management), providing a synergistic vision on the topic and considering, as a unit of analysis, the purchasing category level (rather than the NPD project level).

This study aims to examine the roles of dynamic innovation capabilities and open innovation activities in breakthrough innovation. Drawing from the absorptive capacity perspective, organizational inertia theory, and open innovation, the authors seek to argue that dynamic innovation capabilities have a curvilinear effect on breakthrough innovation that is moderated by open innovation activities.

A mail survey was sent to the top 1,000 firms in Taiwan, the target respondents being senior managers with experience in developing at least three successful breakthrough innovations in the past five years. A total of 218 usable questionnaires were collected, resulting in a respondent rate of 22.9 percent.

The findings support the argument that dynamic innovation capabilities have an inverted U‐shape relationship with breakthrough innovation. Meanwhile, open innovation activities strengthen the positive effects of dynamic innovation capabilities on breakthrough innovation.

The findings enrich the existing literature by proposing and confirming empirically that open innovation activities help firms with effective coordination of dynamic innovation capabilities.

Managers must be aware of the limitations of their existing dynamic innovation capabilities in terms of developing breakthrough innovation.

This study not only resolves the conflicting views about the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation but also adds to the existing literature that indicates the failure of leading firms in the face of rapid environmental change.

Following the resource-based view, this paper aims to investigate the business performance impact of R&D–marketing integration and marketing and technical capabilities at the organization level in a non-Western context. Specifically, this work explores the mediating role of the two capabilities, while accounting for potential moderating effects and under the contingency of technological turbulence.

Survey data were collected from the paired marketing and R&D executives of 207 Japanese manufacturing companies. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results show that marketing capability – by itself and also coupled with technical capability – mediates the relationship between R&D–marketing integration and business performance, while technical capability alone does not.

This study’s subjective performance measures and cross-sectional design have inherent limitations. The exploration of antecedents and other contingency variables would provide ample scope for future research.

The findings suggest that managers need to build these two capabilities, especially marketing capability, because R&D–marketing integration by itself will not be sufficient to improve business performance.

This study provides empirical evidence for a new theoretical link through which R&D–marketing integration impacts business performance at the program level. The findings may also partially explain the mixed and conflicting results often found in past studies.

The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model for examining how innovation speed mediates the relationship between knowledge management (KM) and performance and empirically tests the proposed model using data collected in the USA and China over three years.

To avoid common method bias and increase ability to draw causal effects of KM on performance, data were collected over three years. KM data were collected by survey; innovation speed data were collected in the following year; and sales growth and gross margin data were collected over the next three years. After merging the three data sets, the final empirical data used for this study contained data from 354 USA and 647 Chinese firms. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the research hypotheses. Sobel mediation tests were performed to test the mediating effects of innovation speed on the relationship between KM and performance.

Innovation speed has a U-shaped relationship with performance in both US and Chinese firms. Knowledge generation has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation speed in both US and Chinese firms. Knowledge dissemination increases innovation speed in US firms but not in Chinese firms. While knowledge application increases innovation speed in the US firms, it decreases innovation speed in Chinese firms.

This study is among the first to propose and empirically test the KM-innovation speed-performance relationship. This paper advances the KM literature by demonstrating that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge generation and innovation speed and that there is a U-shaped relationship between innovation speed and performance. In addition, this study contributed to the cross-national study of KM.

Some studies have suggested that a supply chain augmented with information technology (IT) has a positive effect on performance in the marketplace. However, these studies have not explained how the IT-based supply chain achieves this superior performance. This study aims to reveal some of the mediating influences at play: the new product development (NPD) activities of product launch, product innovativeness and product development capability.

Taking the electronics manufacturer’s perspective, this study took a resource-based view to propose that NPD activities are affected by IT advancement and that IT-based supply chain architecture is a critical resource that ultimately affects new product performance. Thus study focuses on product launch, because this is the most expensive and risky stage of NPD; product innovativeness, because it plays a substantial role in achieving a competitive advantage; and product development capability, because it leads to superior product performance. A questionnaire was used to collect data from managers of projects, products and supply chains of computer and communication electronics manufacturers; 235 valid questionnaires were returned. These data were subsequently analyzed using a variety of statistical methods.

The results support that manufacturers’ IT resources enable them to enhance NPD activities effectively with their suppliers, and that NPD activities play a key role in moderating the relationship between IT-based supply chains and new product performance.

This paper provides an empirically tested model of how IT-based supply chain architecture can lead to superior new product performance through product lean launch, product innovativeness and product development capability.

Manufacturers’ specific investments (SIs) in a specific partner that are of lower value when used in an alternative relationship, such as training employees and tailoring systems to achieve better cooperation, can help improve market performance. However, previous studies lack a simultaneous focus on a manufacturer’s SIs in its upstream and downstream partners. The purpose of this study is to address the effects of manufacturers’ SIs in their suppliers and customers on the two types of innovation and market performance individually and jointly and the mediating effects of radical and incremental innovation on relationships between SIs and market performance.

This study tests proposed relationships based on data collected from 206 manufacturers in China using regression methods.

Results show that SIs in customers directly and indirectly affect market performance through radical and incremental innovation. However, SIs in suppliers cannot directly improve market performance but indirectly enhance market performance through radical innovation. Furthermore, results also show the interaction of SIs in suppliers and customers is positively related to market performance and radical innovation.

This study contributes to the literature on SIs by identifying supply chain SIs (SCSIs) through simultaneously focusing on SIs in suppliers and customers and exploring the direct and indirect effects of SCSIs on market performance. This study also contributes to the innovation literature by empirically verifying incremental and radical innovation as effective intermediaries that help convert SIs into the actual performance improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effects of market growth on the relationships between power distance and new venture performance and between market information utilization in new ventures and new venture performance in China.

This study uses content analyses and OLS regressions.

First, power distance and market information utilization have positive effects on Chinese new venture performance. Second, in a low market growth environment, increasing power distance increases Chinese new venture performance. Third, in a high market growth environment, increasing power distance decreases, not increases, Chinese new venture performance.

This study contributes to the market orientation literature by examining the moderating effects of market growth on the market information utilization-performance relationship in China. This study also adds to the existing understanding of power distance and market information utilization in contingency theoretical perspective.

Chinese new ventures operating in a high-growth market should reduce power distance. However, when operating in the low market growth industry, Chinese new ventures should increase power distance. While all Chinese new ventures should use market information to make decisions, the roles of market information are more important for Chinese new ventures operating in high market growth industries than for those operating in low market growth industries.

This study examines the moderating effects of market growth on the positive relationship between power distance and Chinese new venture performance and the positive relationship between market information utilization on Chinese new venture performance in the same model.

Technology uncertainty poses significant challenges to manufacturers, as rapid changes in product and/or process standards and specifications can disrupt the smooth flow of materials in extended supply chains. Practitioners and researchers alike who take a relational perspective widely regard supplier involvement as a potentially effective strategy to cope with technology uncertainty, as focal manufacturers can tap into their upstream supply networks for complementary resources and capabilities. However, the literature lacks a nuanced understanding of the supplier involvement processes. Specifically, the role of resource dependence for supplier involvement has yet to be systematically understood. To fill this gap, this study aims to combine the relational perspective with the resource-dependence perspective to explore how buyer dependence, supplier dependence and buyer–supplier interdependence influence buyers’ decision-making on tapping into upstream supply networks for coping with technology uncertainty.

To test the hypotheses, a survey is conducted among Dutch firms with more than 50 employees in the discrete manufacturing industries (ISIC 28-35), resulting in a sample of 125 manufacturers.

First, there is a significantly positive relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement, giving support to the expectation that buyers are indeed involving their key suppliers in the product/process design and improvement, as a response to technology uncertainty. Second, buyer dependence and interdependence are found to be positively moderating the relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement. In contrast, supplier dependence has a negative moderating effect on the baseline relationship.

The authors contribute to a relational view on buyer–supplier relationships by showing that the validity of this view, in the context of technology uncertainty, is contingent on the resource dependence between buyers and suppliers, and the authors contribute to the supply chain management literature more generally by combining a relational perspective with a resource-dependence perspective.

The findings provide several nuanced insights into the effect of resource dependence (buyer dependence, supplier dependence and interdependence) on supplier involvement for coping with technology uncertainty.

This study contributes to the supply chain management research by going beyond the benefits of supplier involvement and highlights the circumstances under which supplier involvement is likely to occur.

The purpose of this research is to provide an empirical examination of the role of the salesperson in the new product/service development process.

A survey was mailed to 2,650 sales managers representing US firms across the nation, and the resulting sample size consisted of 246 respondents with a response rate of 9.3 percent. The survey sample included firms with a business‐to‐business emphasis, and those with a minimum of 50 employees.

The majority of the respondents reported that salespeople are indirectly or directly involved in the new product/service development process. In spite of this contribution, many firms do not directly reward salespeople for their involvement. Offering appropriate incentives could greatly increase their efforts to collect information for new product/service idea generation.

Suggested future research includes the perspectives of salespeople, new product development directors, etc. In addition, the study was strictly domestic and could benefit from an international focus, as well as a comparison of products versus services sectors.

The findings from this study can be used by managers as a benchmark for assessing sales force participation in the new product/service development, and to identify ways to encourage increased participation by the sales force with incentives.

Little formalized research has been conducted on the specific role that salespeople play in the new product/service development process. The findings from this study may provide strategic guidance to organizations with respect to the role of salespeople in the critical new product/service development process.