Knowledge sharing and creation in supplier–supplier collaboration

Abstract

To fulfill buyers' increasingly sophisticated procurement needs, suppliers often collaborate with partners that possess complementary skills and knowledge. Collaborative partnerships enable suppliers to create knowledge together and develop superior products or services for the buyer. The literature, however, has paid limited attention to the drivers of knowledge sharing and creation between the supplier partners in such collaborations. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model of knowledge sharing and creation between two suppliers when they collaborate to serve a buyer. Survey data collected from 129 supplier firms lend strong empirical support to the conceptual model. Structural equation modeling results show that knowledge sharing and creation between supplier partners depends not only on supplier–dyad factors (past collaborative history, relationship-specific investments, and knowledge base compatibility) but also on buyer factors (buyer governance, relationship closeness with the buyer, and interdependence with the buyer). This research expands the literature by showing the influence of the buyer on its suppliers' knowledge sharing and collaborative behavior in a buyer–supplier–supplier triad.