Types of embedded ties in buyer-supplier relationships and their combined effects on innovation performance
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the impact of three types of embedded ties, namely, specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, on the innovation capacity of firms. It also examines the particularities of the machine-tool industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The evaluation of the embedded buyer-supplier ties is based on the potential sources of relational rents proposed by Dyer and Singh (1998). It also draws on Uzzi and Lancaster (2003) and Noordhoff et al. (2011), among others, to discuss the positive and negative aspects of embedded ties. Using data from a survey of 202 European machine-tool firms acting as buyers and sellers, the study proposes and evaluates a structural equation model.
Findings
Only knowledge-sharing routines exert a significant positive effect on product innovation performance. Neither an increase in idiosyncratic investments nor in complementary resources and capabilities enhances innovation performance. Moreover, knowledge-sharing routines mediate in the effect of idiosyncratic investments on innovation performance.
Research limitations/implications
The machine-tool industry has unique characteristics that make generalization difficult. There is also considerable difficulty associated with testing the interrelations among these embedded ties in greater depth in the long run. It is plausible to consider that these interrelations operate within a gradual process.
Originality/value
This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of embedded ties on innovativeness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous international empirical research has been published analyzing the mediation effects among specialized complementary resources, idiosyncratic investments and knowledge sharing, and their effects on the innovation capacity of firms.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Fundación Emilio Soldevilla para la Investigación y el Desarrollo en Economía de la Empresa (FESIDE) and the Sociedad para la Promoción y Reconversión Industrial (SPRI), from the Basque Government of the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain), for their financial support to conduct this empirical study. They also wish to thank Professor Dr Hartmut Holzmüller (Head of Marketing Department at the Technische Univertsität Dortmund) for his advice during the initial steps of this study, and Brian Blöch (Univertsität Müster) for his help and comments.
Citation
Charterina, J., Basterretxea, I. and Landeta, J. (2016), "Types of embedded ties in buyer-supplier relationships and their combined effects on innovation performance", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 152-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-04-2014-0071
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited