Research On The Effect Of Firm Strategic Supply Management On Black-box Supplier Knowledge Integration

Faced with an increasingly fierce market competition environment,more and more manufacturing firms are entrusting a large number of module innovation and development work,such as product components and sub-systems/systems,to suppliers with more professional complementary knowledge ability for independent responsibility in order to quickly cooperate to develop more competitive and innovative products,which is the so-called "black-box supplier involvementvparticipation in new product development".In practice,however,this involvement strategy may not always produce the desired innovation outcomes.The reason for this is that firms are unable to achieve a good integration of both sides’ knowledge advantages with black box suppliers.As a result,resolving this integration issue has become critical to the collaborative development strategy’s success.However,existing relevant research still focuses on the problem of knowledge integration in general involvement context,and knowledge integration is mostly constructed as a whole in the analysis process,ignoring the unique differences in the content and mode of knowledge interaction in a specific involvement context,as well as a lack of targeted research on black-box suppliers’ knowledge integration in new product development(referred to as black box supplier knowledge integration).There is currently no theoretical explanation for how firms effectively integrate a black-box supplier’ knowledge into product innovation,and there are few rigorous empirical studies to identify and verify the critical role of firm strategic supply management activities in this integration process.In light of the aforementioned research gaps,the research uses a Chinese manufacturing firms as the research object,concentrating on the issue of successful black-box supplier knowledge integration.First,the grounded theory technique is utilized to investigate the black-box supplier knowledge integration construct,analyze its conceptual connotation and constituent dimensions,and develop the integration construct interpretation model.Following that,an integrated questionnaire is created to collect sample data based on the original data from grounded interviews.The structural stability of the integration model is further evaluated by exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis,as well as reliability and validity tests,and an effective measurement scale is developed.Second,this research analyzes and constructs the relationship model between firm strategic supply management and black-box supplier knowledge integration,and develops corresponding research hypotheses,on the basis of clarifying the connotation and composition of black-box supplier knowledge integration,according to the knowledge-based view,resource dependence theory and principal-agent theory.This research empirically tests the effect of firm strategic supply management on black-box supplier knowledge integration by collecting large sample data and using structural equation model method for hypothesis test analysis.Last,based on the findings and discussion,this research proposes some management enlightenment from the perspectives of manufacturing firms evaluating and managing black-box suppliers,as well as integrating their knowledge advantages,in order to provide useful guidance for Chinese manufacturing firms working with black-box suppliers to create more competitive products.The main conclusions and innovative contributions are summarized as follows:Firstly,the connotation and content composition of black-box supplier knowledge integration are clarified,and the knowledge integration model is constructed.The three dimensions of blackbox supplier knowledge integration are common sense-making on product specifications,common tackling to interface problems,and common evolving between system modules,which reflect the collaborative innovation efforts of a manufacturing firm and its black-box supplier in three aspects.The first dimension shows collaborative efforts to scientifically formulate reasonable and feasible product specification via knowledge interactions such as clarifying role expectations,sharing background information,and negotiating functional needs.The second dimension shows collaborative efforts to quickly solve and deal with interface compatibility difficulties via knowledge interaction such as interface knowledge exchange,learning,and transformation.The third dimension shows collaborative efforts to maintain synchronous technology upgrades between system modules and the good working of the overall innovation function via knowledge interactions such as specific resource investment,adaptive innovation design,and systematic module verification.This achievement deeply explains the essence of knowledge integration of black-box suppliers’ participation practice,and makes it clear that the effectiveness of their collaborative development depends on whether the two sides can achieve good inter-organizational knowledge integration,which explains the inconsistency of the current research conclusions on the impact of black-box supplier involvement on innovation performance to a certain extent.Secondly,a useful measurement scale for black-box supplier knowledge integration is developed.The three-dimensional scale is made up of 36 measurement items and its highly reliability and validity further verifies the structural stability of black-box supplier knowledge integration model developed by the grounded research.This achievement not only serves as a useful reference for manufacturing firms in evaluating the knowledge integration between the two sides in the process of black-box supplier participation,but it also serves as a useful measurement tool for future empirical research on black-box supplier knowledge integration.Thirdly,this research verifies the important role of firm strategic supply management in promoting black-box supplier knowledge integration.supply base focus,procurement strategy participation and organizational internal integration can help both parties achieve a higher degree of knowledge integration,which will improve product innovation performance,by promoting the common sense-making on product specifications and the common evolving between system modules between manufacturing firm and its black-box supplier.In addition to the above two influence paths,long-term relationship development will also help both sides achieve a higher degree of knowledge integration by promoting the common tackling to interface problems.This achievement elucidates the differences in the influence paths of various strategic supply management practices on black-box supplier knowledge integration,as well as the close link between the two research fields of firm strategic supply management and supplier knowledge integration.Finally,this research finds that firm desorptive capacity has significant positive moderating effects in the process of promoting the black-box supplier knowledge integration by firm strategic supply management.Firm desorptive capacity will not only strengthen the promotion effect of supply base focus,procurement strategy participation,and internal integration of the organization on the common sense-making on product specifications and the common evolving between system modules.Furthermore,when a firm’s desorption capacity is higher,the promotion effect of supply base focus and internal integration of the organization on the common tackling to interface problems becomes more significant.This achievement elaborates in detail the importance and function logic of firm desorptive capacity in the process of promoting knowledge integration by different strategic supply management practices,and provides a certain theoretical support for the development and cultivation of this capacity.This research not only provides theoretical guidance for manufacturing firms to carry out black-box supplier involvement in new product development activities and supply management activities more effectively,but also provides a useful reference for firms to effectively integrate and utilize the knowledge resource advantages of black-box suppliers to create more competitive innovative products.