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The purpose of this paper is to test the market‐based asset framework by examining the role of marketing process improvements in the relationship between a buyer firm's supplier‐related activities and its performance.

Interviews with executives who were involved in supplier development were conducted to learn more about supplier development and to help in the development of the survey constructs. A self‐report survey was then developed online to collect data for the study. In total, 338 executives responded and partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses developed in the study.

Marketing process improvements were found to mediate the relationship between a firm's supplier development efforts and firm performance, thus providing empirical support for the market‐based asset framework. The study also found that a firm's supplier development activities can lead to improvements in its marketing processes.

For too long, a firm's supply chain has been seen as the primary domain of the supply chain and operations department, even though supply chain decisions and errors have a considerable impact on the ability of marketing professionals to perform. The findings in this study demonstrate the value of the relationship between a firm's supply chain and its marketing activities and as such makes the case for marketing executives to be more involved in supply chain activities.

Recent studies have found inconsistent findings on the impact of supplier and customer involvement on new product development. This study thus aims to explore what contextual factors affect supplier and customer involvement altogether and how such involvement affects new product performance.

The study used structural equation modelling to analyze empirical survey data from 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong.

The study found that modular design, product innovation, and internal coordination are positively correlated with the supplier and customer involvement. Such involvement and product innovation lead to better new product performance.

The study is limited to the use of cross‐sectional data and a single key informant approach, and the industry structure of the sampled industries.

The study examines the contextual factors of supplier and customer involvement and how such involvement relates to new product development with new empirical evidence. The study not only provides new empirical evidence to support the importance of supply chain management in product development, but also extends existing literature to identify new contextual factors for such involvement.

The study re‐examines generalized beliefs about supplier and customer involvement in new product development, and extends prior studies of the contextual dimensions of product modularity, product innovativeness, and internal coordination on such involvement in an empirical way.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the manufacturer‐supplier collaboration (MSC) types in the automotive industry and factors that affect such collaboration.

The unit of analysis is 1st tier suppliers registered with Hyundai‐KIA Motors Corporation (HKMC); a survey was conducted targeting these 1st tier suppliers. Then, hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

First, five distinct MSC types were identified as follows: collaborative communication, collaboration in new car development, collaborative problem solving, strategic purchasing, and supplier development. Second, contrary to previous studies, suppliers' customer proliferation capability is found to affect MSC positively. Of suppliers' capabilities, flexibility, dependability improvement, module, design, and 2nd tier supplier development/coordination capabilities affect MSC positively. Third, while technology uncertainty is found to have a significant moderating effect on the influence supplier capabilities exercise over collaborative problem solving and strategic purchasing, it has no direct impact on any MSC type.

Sampling is limited to a relatively small number of HKMC's 1st tier suppliers. Of note is that this study examined factors affecting MSC, focusing on supplier capabilities. In terms of methodology, surveys, and interviews were conducted concurrently to ensure reliability of results.

First tier suppliers can review their MSC activities and identify which capabilities they need to develop in order to strengthen their MSC with due consideration of technology uncertainty. Auto manufacturers can also benefit from the empirically tested MSC typologies.

This study not only considered technology uncertainty as a moderator of the impact that supplier capabilities have on MSC, but also improved the understanding of MSC through empirical examination.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise the characteristics of the relationship between large purchasing organisations (LPOs) and ethnic minority suppliers (EMSs) engaging with supplier diversity programmes and provide an assessment and developmental framework for such organisations.

Having considered an array of purchaser‐supplier relationship frameworks in relevant streams of literature, the paper draws on Lamming et al.'s framework to advance a tool for assessing and developing the relationship between LPOs and EMSs.

The submitted relationship assessment and development framework brings in sharp focus the characteristics of the relationship between LPO and EMS, providing a systematic way to examine the inter‐organisational context within which EMS development takes place.

The framework submitted could signpost future research in this field, which should take a longitudinal, processual approach. This is necessary to provide opportunities to examine the dynamics underlying the development of potent LPO‐EMS relationships in a variety of settings, including negative instances.

The paper has implications for corporate policy making and practice in this arena. Assessing the potency of LPOs‐EMSs relationships by applying the proffered tool can help both parties engage with supplier diversity, to develop fruitful relationships that enhance their competitiveness.

The latter can have social implications, as EMSs often operate in and employ people from disadvantaged communities.

The framework advanced in this article constitutes a novel tool that highlights the areas in which LPOs and EMSs should channel their efforts, in order to develop a potent relationship between them, which underpins the development of EMSs’ supply capabilities.

This study uses social capital theory to analyze how social capital and supplier development support achieving supplier satisfaction and preferred customer status. The resulting model is compared between manufacturing and service suppliers.

A survey receiving 482 supplier responses from manufacturing and service suppliers was utilized and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling and multi-group comparison tests.

The paper adds new explanations for preferred customer status through empirical evidence of relationships between supplier development, social capital, supplier satisfaction, and preferred customer status. Cognitive and relational capital directly support achieving preferred customer status. The role of supplier satisfaction in achieving preferred customer status is lower for manufacturing suppliers.

Both service and manufacturing suppliers could also be studied in their specific industry settings. A more in-depth investigation of other business relationship dynamics, such as power, is needed in a future study.

Service and manufacturing suppliers need different strategies to obtain the benefits from supplier development and social capital building. For service suppliers, more intangible factors are relevant in comparison to manufacturing suppliers.

This study advances the literature in two main ways. First, it elaborates the role of supplier development and social capital in the path toward supplier satisfaction and preferred customer status as perceived by suppliers. Second, this study answers the calls for a better understanding of the contextual characteristics underlying potential differences in how preferred customer status is formed.

Concerns the nature of strategic capabilities from a network (rather than single‐firm) context. Augments what may be termed the predominantly structural and inward‐looking bias of much of the existing literature by integrating issues of network theory and organizational learning into the authors’ conceptual frames. Contends that this is necessary in order to understand more clearly the processes through which strategic development takes place, and especially to appreciate the sources of transformational change.

Although previous studies have examined the influence of asset specificity on firm performance, the literature has not focused on the influence of supplier asset specificity on product development, or the transformation that induces this. This study aims to propose a model by using the relational exchange perspective to explain the mechanism in which supplier investment in specific assets on behalf of buyers influences buyer performance in product development.

Empirical data were collected from research and development staff in Taiwanese listed electronic firms and tested using structural equation modeling to verify the fit of the hypothetical model.

The result demonstrates that supplier investment in specific assets for buyers positively impacts buyer's perceived relationship quality, which in turn affects knowledge sharing between buyers and suppliers and buyer product development performance. However, asset specificity does not directly affect knowledge sharing.

This study illuminates the contribution of asset specificity to knowledge sharing and product development performance, by clarifying the mediation effects resulting from relationship quality and knowledge sharing.

Intense competition and structural changes characterize the car industry. Several trends (i.e. general changes over time) concerning sourcing strategies and supplier relations can therefore be identified. The article aims to analyze how these trends correspond to the actual situation in the car industry. Based on a survey answered by both car manufacturers and first tier suppliers, this article provides facts and analyses regarding sourcing‐related trends over the past decade as well as some future predictions. The results show that both car manufacturers and suppliers continue to reduce product development time. They also increase supplier involvement in product development and the share of inbound JIT‐deliveries. However, while suppliers increase their outsourcing and globalization of production and product development activities, car manufacturers do not. Only some of the identified sourcing‐related trends are actually supported by the presented results. Hence, this article modulates the picture of the current development within the car industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether original equipment manufacturing (OEM) suppliers can affect the development of buyer competence by manipulating two environmental factors: the development of competence in OEM supplier's external business relationships and the competitive pressure of the OEM supplier environment.

The sample population consisted of 1,000 OEM suppliers in the Taiwanese information technology (IT) industry. Partial least squares analysis was used to examine the causal relationships among the variables.

The empirical results revealed that the pressure of the external environment pushes OEM suppliers to develop competence through external business relationships. This competence in turn affects the development of buyer competence. Furthermore, OEM supplier impact on buyer competence development is positively associated with the importance of OEM supplier in outsourcing relationship.

The paper empirically examines whether the impacts of the OEM supplier derived from different sourced environments play distinct roles in the development of the OEM supplier's power.