Customer and Supplier Involvement in Design: The Moderating Role of Incremental and Radical Innovation Capability

More and more firms are leveraging design as a resource to gain the upper hand in today's competitive business market. To this end, this study draws on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to examine the relationship between customer and supplier involvement in the design process and new product performance. The research also extends the RBV to a contingency lens by introducing product innovation capability (incremental and radical) as a moderator to draw the boundary conditions of the impact of customer/supplier involvement in design on new product performance. Using data collected from Canadian high-tech companies, the findings provide strong support for the hypotheses in that customer involvement in design helps new product performance under high incremental innovation capability but harms new product performance under high radical innovation capability. In contrast, supplier involvement in design was beneficial to new product performance under both high incremental and radical innovation capability. The managerial implications for the role of design under different innovation capabilities are discussed.

[1]  John Stevens,et al.  Aligning Strategy and Design Perspectives: A Framework of Design's Strategic Contributions , 2011 .

[2]  Masaaki Kotabe,et al.  Marketing-Industrial Design Integration in New Product Development: The Case of China , 2011 .

[3]  K. Scott Swan,et al.  Perspective: The Emergence of Product Design as a Field of Marketing Inquiry† , 2011 .

[4]  Charles H. Noble,et al.  On elevating strategic design research , 2011 .

[5]  Esther P. Y. Tang,et al.  Effects of supplier and customer integration on product innovation and performance: Empirical evidence in Hong Kong manufacturers , 2010 .

[6]  J. Wind,et al.  Guest Editorial: Is Marketing Academia Losing Its Way? , 2009 .

[7]  Hermann Simon,et al.  Hidden Champions of the Twenty-First Century , 2009 .

[8]  Michael Song,et al.  Supplier's involvement and success of radical new product development in new ventures , 2008 .

[9]  Michael Song,et al.  A Heterogeneous Resource Based View for Exploring Relationships between Firm Performance and Capabilities , 2007 .

[10]  D. Probert,et al.  Development of a Design Audit Tool for SMEs , 2007 .

[11]  James M. Sinkula,et al.  Does Market Orientation Facilitate Balanced Innovation Programs? An Organizational Learning Perspective , 2007 .

[12]  Scott L. Newbert.  Empirical research on the resource‐based view of the firm: an assessment and suggestions for future research , 2007 .

[13]  Xueming Luo,et al.  Working with Rivals: The Impact of Competitor Alliances on Financial Performance , 2007 .

[14]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Resolving the Capability–Rigidity Paradox in New Product Innovation , 2005 .

[15]  Mohan Subramaniam,et al.  The Influence of Intellectual Capital on the Types of Innovative Capabilities , 2005 .

[16]  O. Gassmann,et al.  Managing the Risk of Customer Integration , 2005 .

[17]  R. Handfield,et al.  Supplier integration into new product development: coordinating product, process and supply chain design , 2005 .

[18]  Rachel Cooper,et al.  Characterizing the Role of Design in New Product Development: An Empirically Derived Taxonomy* , 2005 .

[19]  K. Scott Swan,et al.  Exploring Robust Design Capabilities, Their Role in Creating Global Products, and Their Relationship to Firm Performance , 2005 .

[20]  Brigitte Borja de Mozota,et al.  The Impact of User‐Oriented Design on New Product Development: An Examination of Fundamental Relationships* , 2005 .

[21]  Marjorie B. Platt,et al.  The Impact of Industrial Design Effectiveness on Corporate Financial Performance , 2005 .

[22]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Strategic Decision Comprehensiveness and New Product Development Outcomes in New Technology Ventures , 2004 .

[23]  Paul Humphreys,et al.  Early supplier involvement in the design process: lessons from the electronics industry , 2004 .

[24]  J. Callahan,et al.  The Importance of Customer Input in the Development of Very New Products , 2004 .

[25]  R. Handfield,et al.  A Model of Supplier Integration into New Product Development , 2003 .

[26]  Douglas C. West,et al.  Design and Competitive Advantage: Strategies for Market Acceptance , 2002 .

[27]  Fredrik Von Corswant,et al.  Coordinating customers and proactive suppliers: A case study of supplier collaboration in product development , 2002 .

[28]  Gary L. Ragatz,et al.  Benefits associated with supplier integration into new product development under conditions of technology uncertainty , 2002 .

[29]  Liam Fahey,et al.  The resource-based view and marketing: The role of market-based assets in gaining competitive advantage , 2001 .

[30]  Akira Takeishi,et al.  Bridging inter‐ and intra‐firm boundaries: management of supplier involvement in automobile product development , 2001 .

[31]  M. Lindell,et al.  Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[32]  G. Gemser,et al.  How integrating industrial design in the product development process impacts on company performance , 2001 .

[33]  F. Wynstra,et al.  Managing supplier involvement in product development:: Three critical issues , 2001 .

[34]  R. Chandy,et al.  The Incumbent's Curse? Incumbency, Size, and Radical Product Innovation , 2000 .

[35]  Christopher M. McDermott,et al.  Concurrent development and strategic outsourcing , 2000 .

[36]  Allan Afuah.  How much do your co-opetitors' capabilities matter in the face of technological change? , 2000 .

[37]  Gianmario Verona.  A Resource-Based View of Product Development , 1999 .

[38]  R. Chandy,et al.  Organizing for Radical Product Innovation: The Overlooked Role of Willingness to Cannibalize , 1998 .

[39]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Discontinuous innovation and the new product development process , 1998 .

[40]  Gary S. Lynn,et al.  Learning Is the Critical Success Factor in Developing Truly New Products , 1998 .

[41]  G. O'Connor.  Market learning and radical innovation: A cross case comparison of eight radical innovation projects , 1998 .

[42]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Key factors affecting customer evaluation of discontinuous new products , 1998 .

[43]  D. Larcker,et al.  Product Development Cycle Time and Organizational Performance , 1997 .

[44]  G. Lynn,et al.  Marketing and Discontinuous Innovation: The Probe and Learn Process , 1996 .

[45]  Stuart Macdonald,et al.  Too Close for Comfort?: The Strategic Implications of Getting Close to the Customer , 1995 .

[46]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PAST RESEARCH, PRESENT FINDINGS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS , 1995 .

[47]  Antonio J. Bailetti,et al.  Integrating customer requirements into product designs , 1995 .

[48]  Sundar G. Bharadwaj,et al.  Sustainable competitive advantage in service industries: A conceptual model and research , 1993 .

[49]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences , 1993 .

[50]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[51]  John C. Narver,et al.  The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability , 1990 .

[52]  K. Clark.  Project scope and project performance: the effect of parts strategy and supplier involvement on product development , 1989 .

[53]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[55]  Glen L. Urban,et al.  Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial Products , 1988 .

[56]  George S. Day,et al.  Assessing Advantage: A Framework for Diagnosing Competitive Superiority , 1988 .

[57]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .

[58]  Blake Ives,et al.  User Involvement and MIS Success: A Review of Research , 1984 .

[59]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[60]  J. Scott Armstrong,et al.  Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. , 1977 .