دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مشارکت خرید در پروژه های توسعه محصول جدید نامطمئن از لحاظ فنی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

This paper explores an emerging field of research within purchasing that concerns the changing role of purchasing when companies embark on technologically uncertain NPD projects. Where existing research has examined the role of purchasing in facilitating early supplier involvement in new product development, little research has been done to date on how purchasing's role might change when facing technologically uncertain NPD that require new capabilities and new technology. Based on an in-depth case study of a technologically uncertain NPD project in the passenger ship rescue equipment industry, the paper sheds light on how supplier involvement in NPD projects with a high degree of technological uncertainty impacts on a company's sourcing strategies and the challenges this poses for purchasing.

Based on the case study findings, we propose a) that early purchasing involvement in technologically uncertain NPD projects requires a mature purchasing organization that possesses competences to interact effectively with R&D and b) that involving a new supplier from a different industry in NPD projects characterized by technological uncertainty requires a leap of faith from both innovating firm and supplier. The paper contributes to research in early supplier involvement in new product development, in particular the thin branch within this body of literature that now focuses on early purchasing involvement.

5. Conclusions and implications

This paper sought to address a gap in existing research on the role and challenges of purchasing in technologically uncertain NPD. We have investigated firstly how companies may apply alternative sourcing strategies when implementing supplier involvement in NPD projects with a high degree of technological uncertainty and secondly what challenges this may impose for the purchasing function when implementing supplier involvement in NPD projects under high technological uncertainty.

We have used a single in-depth case study of a technologically uncertain NPD project within a company in the maritime safety industry based on multiple internal interviews with managers and operational personnel representing different organizational functions; these include purchasing, internally called ‘strategic sourcing’, R&D, marketing and top management. In addition, we interviewed a supplier of a new technology, which was key to the innovation in Project Alpha Raft. The case study explored how the purchasing function dealt with the challenges posed by a technologically uncertain NPD project and the implications for sourcing and supplier relationship development; interviewing people from different functions and the supplier involved enabled us to gain the different perceptions or ‘local truths’ (Järvensivu and Törnroos, 2010) that indeed turned out to differ significantly in some respects, for example, around the extent of innovation represented by the Alpha Raft project.