How specific investments influence NPD performance: exploring the roles of supplier involvement and IT implementation
European Journal of Innovation Management
ISSN: 1460-1060
Article publication date: 14 December 2021
Issue publication date: 8 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of specific investments to performance has mixed arguments. This paper aims to clarify how and under what conditions specific investments made by manufacturer tailored to supplier affect the new product development (NPD) performance of the manufacturer itself.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a moderated mediation model, testing the roles of supplier involvement and information technology (IT) implementation by regression and bootstrap analyses from 378 NPD projects.
Findings
The results show both physical and human specific investments positively affect NPD performance. IT implementation strengthens the mediated role of supplier involvement, i.e. the mediator role of supplier involvement between specific investments and NPD performance link is significantly weaker while IT implementation is lower.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to identify IT implementation and supplier involvement as two important constructs, together demonstrating how and when specific investments affect NPD performance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback during the review process. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71974089), the development plan of Youth Innovation Team in colleges and universities of Shandong Province of China (2019RWG005), Key R&D projects (soft science projects) in Shandong Province of China (2020RZB01009) and MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Youth Foundation Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (19YJC630180).
Citation
Wu, A. (2023), "How specific investments influence NPD performance: exploring the roles of supplier involvement and IT implementation", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 954-981. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-06-2021-0284
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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