Three Essays on New Product Development in Supply Chain.
详细信息
文摘
Supply chain integration and innovation are two highly interrelated strategies firms must apply in order to gain a competitive advantage in the turbulent business environment of today. An increasing number of companies have begun looking beyond their boundaries to explore the use of external resources in creating additional value in their product innovation. Therefore, the process with which firms integrate their supply chain partners in new product development NPD) has aroused the interest of researchers and practitioners. The three studies in this dissertation address innovation and NPD issues in supply chain management. Study 1: Building Product Innovation Capability of Chinese Manufacturers: A Longitudinal Study. In this study, the impacts of internal and external resources, as well as their interactions on the product innovation capability of Chinese manufacturers are investigated. Three internal resources financial, physical, and human) and two external resources external expert and cooperated project) are identified as antecedents of firm product innovation capability. The conceptual model is then built based on resource-based view REV) and absorptive capacity ACAP). Panel data from the Guangdong Technology and Innovation Assessment Center are used to test the relationships in the model. The results show that internal and external resources have different impacts on product innovation capability. Moreover, the interactions between internal resources and external resources significantly influence product innovation capability. Study 2: Customer Collaboration in Product Development: An Exploratory Study of Manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta of China. Here, the customer collaborations in product development, their impacts, and contingencies in Chinese manufacturers are explored. A grounded-theory-building cross-case analytic approach is used to acquire a deeper understanding of customer collaboration in product development within the Chinese context. The results show that the firm level analysis in multiple cases helps identify different techniques of customer collaboration in product development. The two coordination dimensions information exchange and co-development) are clearly demonstrated in three stages concept generation, project execution, and product usage) and two directions. In particular, it has been found that the focal firms involve cosupplier in the process of customer collaboration. Building on RBV and interorganizational learning theory, a customer collaboration-operational capability model is hereby proposed. Two operational capabilities supply chain operating capability and integrated product development capability) and contingencies technology/market familiarity and service proactiveness) are also identified based on case evidences. Study 3: The Effects of Project Complexity and Novelty on Product Design Collaboration. In this final study, the impacts of project complexity and novelty on product design collaboration are tested. Three types of involvement activities customer, supplier, and manufacturing involvement) are identified as product design collaboration in NPD project. A conceptual model is then built based on organizational information processing theory OIPT). The relationships are tested in the international samples from eight countries, and the results demonstrate the different roles of involvement activities in dealing with project complexity and novelty. Particularly, project complexity has direct impact on manufacturing involvement. Project complexity has indirect impact on customer and supplier involvement through manufacturing involvement. In addition, only project novelty has direct impact on customer and supplier involvement.