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Suppliers stand in the wake of a new diversified strategic momentum in the global production network, where innovation is growing in importance. The term “supplier-driven innovation” is coined in contrast to the current hype on user-driven innovation; this paper aims to discuss the wicked problems for suppliers to actively engage in customers’ innovations.

A qualitative case study of eight Danish suppliers.

The wicked problem of supplier-driven innovation is generated by two intertwined constraints: the ability to engage customers in the co-creation of attractive offers and the ability to include technological knowledge and capabilities residing in the upstream network of suppliers.

This research combines an industrial network approach with perspectives generated through design management literature aiming to develop an innovative space for co-creation across diverse organizational, technological and managerial domains in the global production system.

To participate in supplier-driven innovation, partners need to co-create an innovative space for joint development.

Co-creation enriches the understanding of the diversity of forms of interaction, ranging from information and knowledge exchange and mutual adaptation processes to experimentation with processes of co-creation. Through a complementary view on how suppliers co-create innovative spaces of action in the upstream spaces of technical knowledge as well as the downstream spaces of preferential needs, the research contributes insights about the characteristics of the wicked problems that suppliers need to handle in bridging and expanding these spaces for innovative actions.

The aim of the article is to explore the dynamics of the management consulting process for small firms as an outcome of interactive processes.

The explorative study is based on a summary sketch of an interactive research project (LOS) in which small firms and their interactions with management consultants were studied in a three‐year perspective. The theoretical framework employed is based on the industrial network theory.

The study suggests that clients are co‐producers of the consulting process. Therefore, management consulting in a interactive perspective has important elements of trailing, i.e. changing the frames of reference of the consulting process and creating room for consulting in which the consultant, as well as the client, allow themselves to experiment with their professional foundations. However, it is also suggested that innovative learning processes are difficult to foster in management consulting processes.

The empirical foundation of this explorative study is limited and thus invites to further interactive studies along the paradigm of action research.

Based on the findings, it seems important that both clients and consultants accept the consulting process as a co‐productive process, and that they find a way to work out the expectation gap at the beginning of the process.

The study adopts an industrial network perspective on the consulting process. In this perspective social exchange and adaptation processes among actors, i.e. consultant and client are in focus.

Attempts to consider how a founder has reduced equivocality in relation to support networks and reducing risks, especially in an international environment. Presents the case studies of five Danish and Australian born global companies. Considers different global models and their limitations. Presents the findings of recent surveys in this area. Concludes that internationalization has not been the primary objective in the founding process and gives direction for further research.

This paper aims to explore value creation configurations pursued by suppliers in high-cost countries. The proposed value creation configuration approaches are seen as means for supplier firms to strengthen their competitiveness when faced with increasing global sourcing.

Survey data on supplier firms in Denmark are used in a hierarchical cluster analysis. The identified clusters are interpreted as expressions of different value creation configurations pursued by suppliers with regards to relations with their most important customers.

Three types of suppliers are identified: detached suppliers, which seek to create customer net benefits through low costs; technology-focused suppliers, which design value creation around benefits linked to being at the technological forefront; and integrated suppliers, which share characteristics with technology-focused suppliers, but also align closely with a relatively broader range of customer activities.

Limitations include the specificity of findings from one small, open economy with an extensive supplier base.

For managers in supplier companies, the research suggest value configurations can be used as strategic templates for further specialization and as way to assess and address value creation potential in customer firms.

Previous studies tend to overlook suppliers’ developments of value-creating activities to maintain customer relationships. The paper takes a supplier perspective to deepen the empirically based understanding of value creation configurations followed by high-cost country suppliers in the context of increasing global competition and production relocation. Theoretical implications as well as lessons formanagers in supplier firms of the identification of the different approaches to value creation configurations are presented.