Knowledge management, supplier integration, and new product development

Abstract

There are three ways of developing parts for the end product in relation to the supplier: Black box, grey box, and white box. While in the black box approach suppliers are completely responsible for the new parts, in white box approach suppliers act like a contract manufacturer. Grey box approach however requires true collaborative efforts between companies and their suppliers. In this paper, we will investigate how to improve supplier involvement and grey box new product development (NPD) process based on Knowledge-based view of the firm. Survey methodology and structural equation modelling using Partial Least Square Method (PLS) is used to collect and analyse data. Data were collected by a professional research firm. 102 suitable responses have been collected. While knowledge management (KM) did not have a direct impact on the NPD performance, supplier NPD integration has direct and mediating effect on both NPD and financial performance outcomes. Sub-construct analysis revealed further findings that are insightful. We developed a strong supplier NPD integration measure and strengthen NPD performance measure. As much difficult as it is, as researchers, we need to develop more complex models and collect more data to reach more meaningful findings. Best to our knowledge our paper is one of the rare researches that investigate the relationship between KM and supplier NPD integration (SNPDI). Analysing sub-constructs also reveal that companies must fine calibrate their approach to KM and Supplier NPD integration. The Expectation sub-construct of SNPDI was newly developed and found to be significant on the outcomes.