Title: Antecedents and performance consequences of external involvement in new product development

Authors: Bing Liu; Di Cai; Zhenglin Zhang

Addresses: School of Management, Shandong University, Ji'nan, China ' School of Management, Shandong University, Ji'nan, China ' School of Management, Shandong University, Ji'nan, China

Abstract: This study enriches the external involvement literature, through examining the impacts of demand uncertainty, supply uncertainty, technology uncertainty, top management support and information technology (IT) implementation on two dimensions of external involvement, and the effect of external involvement on firm performance. We propose and empirically test a comprehensive model using data collected in Chinese manufacturing companies. Our findings indicate that technology uncertainty and top management support have positive impacts on both customer involvement and supplier involvement. IT implementation has a significantly positive impact on customer involvement but has no significant impact on supplier involvement. The results also suggest that demand uncertainty and supply uncertainty do not impact on either customer involvement or supplier involvement. Both customer involvement and supplier involvement can improve firm performance significantly.

Keywords: customer involvement; supplier involvement; new product development; NPD; business environment; firm performance; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2017.087791

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2017 Vol.4 No.3, pp.170 - 194

Received: 06 Jul 2016
Accepted: 12 Dec 2016
Published online: 02 Nov 2017 *

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