To read this content please select one of the options below:

Managing glitches in collaborative product development with suppliers

Valéry Merminod (University of Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble IAE, CERAG, Grenoble, France)
Marie Anne Le Dain (University of Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, G-SCOP, Grenoble, France)
Alejandro Germán Frank (Organizational Engineering Group (NEO), Department of Industrial Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Supply Chain Management

ISSN: 1359-8546

Article publication date: 5 May 2021

Issue publication date: 30 March 2022

428

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

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles