Enhancing the performance of supplier involvement in new product development: the enabling roles of social media and firm capabilities

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on complementarity theory, the purpose of this study is to posit that social media use enhances the effect of supplier involvement on new product development (NPD) performance, while two key firm capabilities further enhance the moderating effect of social media use: market and technological knowledge-processing capabilities. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypotheses, the authors used a longitudinal survey of 367 firms, from seven major manufacturing industries: information technology (22.1 per cent), automotive industry (19.6 per cent), chemicals (18.2 per cent), textiles (13.3 per cent), machinery (12.5 per cent), energy (10.1 per cent) and others (4.1 per cent). Findings The results support the expectation that social media use and two firm capabilities (market and technological knowledge-processing capabilities) enhance the effect of supplier involvement on NPD performance in terms of product innovativeness, market performance and financial performance. Interestingly, post-hoc analyses indicate that supplier involvement has an inverted U-shaped relationship with product innovativeness. In addition, social media use not only strengthens the positive effect of, but also alleviates the negative effect of, supplier involvement in product innovativeness. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study provide new evidence that supply chain members’ use of social media better enables them to enhance their innovation performance with supplier involvement. Practical implications This study provides practical direction to help manufacturing managers enhance innovation performance outcomes of supplier involvement. Originality/value This study makes an original contribution to the supply chain literature by empirically demonstrating the key enablers that increase the efficacy of supplier involvement.

Predicting attitude of young Indian consumers toward brand pages over social media: A structural equation modeling approach

“…With the advent of different social media platforms sharing and dispersing of these messages have become a common phenomenon, and business leaders have accepted that firms need to embrace these platforms to make their consumers interact and participate in firm activities (Bhimani et al, 2019). To gain competitive advantage, different firms have used social media platforms for various activities such as marketing, engaging customers in relevant discussions, co-creation of products and services (Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018;Pérez-González et al, 2017). It has become a challenge for marketers to learn the use of social media in achieving their organizational goals.…”

What makes social media-based supplier network involvement more effective for new product performance? The role of network structure

“…Apparently, social media provides a more effective alternative for buying firms to communicate directly and immediately with suppliers incorporating their knowledge into the ideation stage, development stage, or launch stage of their NPD process (Roberts, Piller, & Lüttgens, 2016). However, despite a growing scholarly interest in social media-based supplier involvement, these previous studies (e.g., Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018;Bashir et al, 2017) highlight only separate one-on-one social media-based supplier involvement, with much less attention given to whether the research results and resulting theories are largely the same if the research focus is on the effects of many-to-many social media-based supplier network involvement. To investigate the issue of social media-based supplier involvement within closed-loop networks, we rely on network content of social network theory, which refers to resources that flow within and across social networks, while network structure refers to the pattern of collaborative relationships of a network graph (Dobrow, Chandler, Murphy, & Kram, 2012).…”

“…Various aspects of supplier involvement in new product development (NPD) have been investigated, such as knowledge protection (Jean, Sinkovics, & Hiebaum, 2014), timing of involvement (Laursen & Andersen, 2016), informal social interaction (Liu, Huang, Dou, & Zhao, 2017), and the role of firm capabilities (Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018). Supplier involvement in NPD refers to the resources (capabilities, investments, information, knowledge, ideas) that suppliers provide, the tasks they carry out, and the responsibilities they assume regarding the development of a new product for the benefit of a buying firm (Jean et al, 2014).…”

“…Recently, the use of social media has been proposed as a valid alternative to other, more conventional, means of supplier involvement (e.g., Bhimani, Mention, & Barlatier, 2019;Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018;Bashir, Papamichail, & Malik, 2017).…”

“…The supply chain management literature (e.g., Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018;Bashir et al, 2017) has acknowledged the benefit of involving suppliers in the NPD process via using social media, that is, social media-based supplier involvement. This refers to those suppliers directly involved in the NPD process of the buying firms to which they supply parts and materials, who rely on social media to exchange knowledge regarding product design, product testing, and product commercialization (Cheng & Krumwiede, 2018). An added benefit rarely cited in previous literature is that social media-based supplier involvement enables many-to-many (as opposed to one-to-one) simultaneous communications among the focal buying firm and its suppliers (Bashir et al, 2017).…”