Technology‐Based New Product Development Partnerships*

TLDR

The study hypothesizes that dynamic capabilities arising from interfirm partnerships during joint new product development—enabling resource integration and reconfiguration—positively affect NPD success and commercialization, with technology‑based partnerships expected to outperform low‑technology ones, and that IT support enhances these capabilities. Surveying 72 auto‑company managers and suppliers, the authors tested a model where IT support for NPD enhances partnership success via dynamic capabilities, finding general support across high‑ and low‑technology contexts. Results confirm that IT‑supported dynamic capabilities improve technology‑based interfirm NPD partnership success, offering theoretical and managerial implications.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hypotheses were developed to capture the dynamic capabilities that result from interfirm partnerships during the joint new product development (NPD) process—the ability to build, integrate, and reconfigure existing resources to adapt to rapidly changing environments. These capabilities, in turn, were proposed to have a positive impact on NPD performance outcomes: (a) proportion of new product success and (b) superior new product commercialization. In contexts where the locus of innovation is rapidly changing, the impact of interfirm NPD dynamic capabilities was hypothesized to be diminished in high‐technology contexts, especially for buyers (original equipment manufacturers) and to a lesser extent for suppliers. Still, technology‐based interfirm NPD partnerships were predicted to ultimately outperform low‐technology ones in both NPD performance outcomes. Finally, information technology (IT) support for NPD was hypothesized to influence the interfirm NPD partnership's dynamic capabilities. Using survey data from 72 auto company managers and their suppliers, the proposed model in which IT support for NPD influences the success of interfirm NPD partnerships through the mediating role of interfirm NPD partnership dynamic capabilities in high‐ and low‐technology contexts was generally supported. The results shed light on the nature of technology‐based interfirm NPD partnerships and have implications for their success. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.