Motivational Antecedents of Buyer-Supplier Collaboration in New Product Development Projects (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

Inter-firm collaboration has become an increasingly popular vehicle for new product de-velopment, however, high failure rates point to the need of further exploring its underlying mech- anisms. In this vein, Hoegl and Wagner (2005) have demonstrated the importance of teamwork quality for buyer- supplier collaboration in new product development teams. Relying on equity theory, we argue that equity perceptions form the motivational base for joint collaboration. However, buyers and suppliers show different levels of equity sensitivity depending on the nature of the goods exchanged. In particular, we argue that buyers and suppliers are equity sensitive when it comes to tangible goods, but favor being over-rewarded when it comes to intangible goods. Data based on 65 buyer-supplier new product development teams, depicting the buyer and the supplier perspective, shows, that joint collaboration is fostered when both, the buyer and the supplier perceive equity in terms of tangible goods. As for intangible goods, it is only the buyer’s perception of being over-rewarded driving joint collaboration. Managerial and theoretical impli-cations are discussed. Our results point to the importance of cooperative instead of exploitative business relations in buyer-supplier collaboration, thus addressing this years’ academy theme “Capitalism in Question”.