Collaborating with suppliers in product development: a US and Japan comparative study

Despite its risks, an increasing number of buyers share design work with their suppliers. However, the outsourcing of design work has been relatively neglected in the literature. Based on mail survey data from 174 US and 122 Japanese automotive component suppliers with product design capability, this study investigates the degree of supplier involvement in design and the factors leading to supplier involvement. The two strongest predictors of the degree of early supplier involvement in design in both Japan and the United States are the degree of technological uncertainty and supplier technical capabilities. Automotive companies are more likely to outsource designs of high uncertainty and select suppliers of high technical capability for design outsourcing. Technological uncertainty also has interaction effects-in the United States, high uncertainty makes customers want to give greater design responsibility to highly technically capable suppliers and those who are most dependent on them as a percent of supplier sales. Overall, the study supports notions of convergence between the US and Japanese supplier management practices in joint product development.

[1]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[2]  C. Perrow.  A FRAMEWORK FOR THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONS , 1967 .

[3]  O. Williamson,et al.  Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. , 1977 .

[4]  S. Globerman,et al.  Markets, Hierarchies, and Innovation , 1980 .

[5]  M. Lewis-Beck.  Applied Regression: An Introduction , 1980 .

[6]  O. Williamson.  The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[7]  Kirk Monteverde,et al.  You have printed the following article : Supplier Switching Costs and Vertical Integration in the Automobile Industry , 2007 .

[8]  Hiroyuki Itami,et al.  Interpenetration of organization and market : Japan's firm and market in comparison with the U.S , 1984 .

[9]  Banri Asanuma,et al.  The Organization of Parts Purchases in the Japanese Automotive Industry , 1985 .

[10]  Banri Asanuma,et al.  The Contractual Framework for Parts Supply in the Japanese Automotive Industry , 1985 .

[11]  H. Thorelli.  Networks: Between Markets and Hierarchies , 1986 .

[12]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design , 1986 .

[13]  Koichi Shimokawa.  Japan's keiretsu system: the case of the automobile industry , 1986 .

[14]  G. Kalton,et al.  The treatment of missing survey data , 1986 .

[15]  Robert E. Spekman.  Strategic supplier selection: Understanding long-term buyer relationships , 1988 .

[16]  Oliver E. Williamson,et al.  The Logic of Economic Organization , 1988 .

[17]  M. Aoki.  Information, Incentives and Bargaining in the Japanese Economy: A Microtheory of the Japanese Economy , 1988 .

[18]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[19]  Banri Asanuma.  Manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan and the concept of relation-specific skill , 1989 .

[20]  K. Eisenhardt.  Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review , 1989 .

[21]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  ALLIANCES IN INDUSTRIAL PURCHASING - THE DETERMINANTS OF JOINT ACTION IN BUYER-SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS , 1990 .

[22]  L. Ellram.  The Supplier Selection Decision in Strategic Partnerships , 1990 .

[23]  John R. Nevin,et al.  Performance Outcomes of Purchasing Arrangements in Industrial Buyer-Vendor Relationships , 1990 .

[24]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  Supplier dependence and innovation: a contingency model of suppliers' innovative activities , 1990 .

[25]  J. Mcmillan.  Managing Suppliers: Incentive Systems in Japanese and U.S. Industry , 1990 .

[26]  M. Sako.  The Role of «Trust» in Japanese buyer-supplier relationships , 1991 .

[27]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Product development performance : strategy, organization, and management in the world auto industry / Kim B. Clark, Tahahiro Fujimoto , 1991 .

[28]  Daniel Roos,et al.  The machine that changed the world : the story of lean production , 1991 .

[29]  S. Helper.  How much has realliy changed between U.S. automakers and their suppliers , 1991 .

[30]  G. Walker,et al.  Profit Centers, Single-Source Suppliers and Transaction Costs , 1991 .

[31]  Susan Helper,et al.  Strategy and Irreversibility in Supplier Relations: The Case of the U.S. Automobile Industry , 1991, Business History Review.

[32]  Michael J. Smitka,et al.  Competitive Ties: Subcontracting in the Japanese Automotive Industry. , 1992 .

[33]  R. Florida,et al.  Transplanted Organizations: The Transfer of Japanese Industrial Organization to the U.S. , 1991 .

[34]  M. Cusumano,et al.  Supplier relations and management: A survey of Japanese, Japanese-transplant, and U. S. auto plants , 1991 .

[35]  Mustapha Bensaou,et al.  Inter-organizational coordination--structure, process, information technology : an empirical study of buyer-supplier relationships in the US/Japanese automobile industries , 1992 .

[36]  Supplier innovation and customer concentration. , 1992 .

[37]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[38]  Linda B. Bourque,et al.  Processing Data: The Survey Example , 1992 .

[39]  Gabler Verlag,et al.  Restructuring Supplier Relationships in U.S. Manufacturing for Improved Quality1 , 1993 .

[40]  W. Ouchi,et al.  JAPANESE-STYLE PARTNERSHIPS -- GIVING COMPANIES A COMPETITIVE EDGE. , 1993 .

[41]  Mark Dodgson,et al.  Technological collaboration in industry , 2018 .

[42]  Donald Tomaskovic-Devey,et al.  Organizational Survey Nonresponse , 1994 .

[43]  Lean manufacturing and the decision to vertically integrate: some empirical evidence from the U.S. automobile industry , 1994 .

[44]  O. Williamson.  Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives , 1994 .

[45]  O. Williamson,et al.  Transaction Cost Economics , 1995 .

[46]  Rajan R. Kamath,et al.  A Second Look at Japanese Product Development , 1995 .

[47]  Mari Sako,et al.  Supplier Relations in Japan and the United States , 1995 .

[48]  Jeffrey H. Dyer.  Specialized supplier networks as a source of competitive advantage : Evidence from the auto industry , 1996 .

[49]  Mitsuo Nagamachi,et al.  Supplier involvement in automotive component design: are there really large US Japan differences? , 1996 .

[50]  J. H. Dyer.  Does Governance Matter? Keiretsu Alliances and Asset Specificity as Sources of Japanese Competitive Advantage , 1996 .

[51]  J. H. Dyer.  How Chrysler Created an American Keiretsu , 1996 .

[52]  John Paul Macduffie,et al.  Creating Lean Suppliers: Diffusing Lean Production through the Supply Chain , 1997 .

[53]  F. Leverick,et al.  Partnerships in the motor industry: Opportunities and risks for suppliers , 1998 .

[54]  S. Helper,et al.  Determinants of trust in supplier relations: Evidence from the automotive industry in Japan and the United States , 1998 .

[55]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  Strategic Supplier Segmentation: The Next “Best Practice” in Supply Chain Management , 1998 .