New product development and supplier involvement: the role of R&D collaboration with supporting organisations

Abstract

Existing research highlights the importance of sourcing external knowledge in manufacturers’ innovative processes. Specifically, supplier involvement in new product development (NPD) has been widely analysed but without conclusive results. To shed light on this matter, this paper provides a deeper insight by analysing the indirect effects in the relationship between supplier involvement and two NPD dimensions (efficiency and effectiveness). In particular, it examines R&D collaboration with supporting organisations as a mechanism by which knowledge provided by suppliers may lead to better innovation performance. This study focuses on 155 high-tech and medium–high-tech Spanish firms to test indirect effects through the PROCESS macro. The results show that while there is a positive and significant indirect effect of supplier involvement on NPD efficiency through R&D collaboration with supporting organisations, that indirect effect is not significant in increasing NPD effectiveness. This research contributes to the literature on inter-organisational networks and NPD by analysing the effects of supplier involvement on NPD through the role played by supporting organisations, with different empirical evidence for each NPD dimension and practical implications.