Collaborative innovation with suppliers – A conceptual model for characterizing supplier contributions to NPD

It is widely acknowledged that suppliers contribute positively to innovation in new product development. However, it remains rather unclear what suppliers actually contribute to innovation. Based on a literature review focusing on 80 articles, and a focus group meeting with strategic purchasing managers, a conceptual framework is developed categorizing different supplier inputs to innovation. This model is formulated by characterizing supplier inputs on a component level and architectural level, related to knowledge extension and knowledge reconfiguration respectively. Further, supplier inputs can be incremental or radical in nature, resulting in either a dependence on the supplier’s process knowledge or the supplier’s technology knowledge. These situations imply different conditions for knowledge integration.