Research On The Influence Of Knowledge Integration Mechanisms On Product Development Performance In SINPD

Nowadays,product life cycle is getting much shorter and the speed of technology improvement is beyond our thought,which teaches manufacturers to know that dealing with the fierce competition single-handed is no longer a wise choice,and cooperation may be of more strategic value.As a vital partner,supplier is positively involved in many product development projects,which is obviously becoming a future trend.In addition to the points previously researched,such as supplier technical capacity,the timing and extent of supplier involvement,companies should think more deeply of how to better realize the cooperation itself.According to knowledge-based view,supplier involvement in product development can be treated as a process of knowledge integration.Specifically,manufacturers aim to achieve the joint application and value creation of knowledge from both companies,which couldn't be truly revealed by knowledge transfer or knowledge sharing.Hence,further exploring the revelant integration mechanisms and its effect on produt development performance under domestic situation will provide a fresh new thought on knowledge management in cooperation and contrtbute to theory development and business practice.In the part of literature review,we firstly analyse and summarize relevant research on supplier involvement in new product development,knowledge integration and so on.Especially,the difference and relationship among knowledge integration,knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing are disguessed.Then,based on division of integration mechanisms into communication-intensive and structural catagories,this paper mainly focuses on group problem solving,thinking along of communication-intensive category,and rules and directives,sequencing of structural one.Following the research clue of integration mechanisms-knowledge integration-product development performance,we construct the model to illustrate the influence of group problem sloving and decision making,thinking along,rules and directives,sequencing on knowledge integraion,and product development performance,including the moderating effect of level of supplier's responsibility on the relation between mechanisms and knowledge integration.Results indicate that: mechanisms of group problem sloving and decision making,thinking along among participants from both companies,as well as proactively developing and arranging rules and directives,sequencing will positively affect knowledge integration in SINPD;Meanwhile,as supplier's level of responsibility increases,the four mechanisms will promote knowledge integration more significantly.Therefore,in order to better accomplish knowledge integration between manufacturer and supplier,and also achieve final success in product development,more attention should be paid by manufacturers in constructing and managing communication channels with suppliers,making full-scale sequencing arrangement with rules jointly complied,becoming capable to deal with specific situation accordingly.