Managing glitches in collaborative product development with suppliers
ISSN: 1359-8546
Article publication date: 5 May 2021
Issue publication date: 30 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose that knowing in practice can be used as a mechanism to enhance social exchange in collaborative new product development (NPD) with suppliers to reduce glitches. Practic00es of inter-organizational knowing should consider the levels of supplier involvement adopted.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies two opposite situations of supplier involvement in NPD projects, namely, white and black box configurations. This paper adopts a qualitative comparative analysis method to identify necessary and sufficient configurations of knowing in practice in 36 projects from 3 different companies.
Findings
Social exchange is important even when the NPD collaboration is based on contractual relationships as in white and grey box collaborations. There are different combinations of practices for inter-organizational knowing that can limit glitches in each supplier configuration. This paper proposes a theoretical model that explains these relationships and contributions to the reduction of glitches.
Originality/value
This paper combines social exchange theory with knowing in practice in the supplier involvement context. The theoretical model contributes to the understanding of knowing in practice in white and black box configurations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This project was financially supported by the International Cooperative Program between France and Brazil (FAPERGS/INRIA/INS2i-CNRS). The Bazilian authors would like to thank the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, PQ2) and the Brazilian Ministry of Education (CAPES) for the grants received to conduct their research activities.
Citation
Merminod, V., Le Dain, M.A. and Frank, A.G. (2022), "Managing glitches in collaborative product development with suppliers", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 348-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-01-2020-0042
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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