Capturing supplier knowledge in new product development: The effects of trust

Trust has been found to be important for integrating suppliers ́ knowledge in new product development (NPD). Different degrees of trust have different consequences for NPD. This paper investigates the effects of trust for capturing supplier knowledge in NPD in different situations. Two different NPD collaborations, identified as polar cases, are studied. The findings indicate differences in knowledge integration practices related to time scope and depth of the collaboration as a consequence of different types of trust. There are two main contributions from these findings. First, different types of trust are emphasized in different types of supplier collaborations. Second, the type of trust is associated with differences in knowledge integration practices expressed in time scope and depth of the collaboration. Relational trust creates conditions for joint knowledge integration in interactive and joint processes, whereas competence-based trust is associated with accessing and capturing knowledge.