Innovation Generation In Buyer-supplier Relationship: The Role Of Relationship Learning

In a super-competitive environment,firms are paying more and more attention to using external resources to make up for internal deficiencies in order to achieve product innovation.With the increasing globalization of the world economy and the rapid development of information technology,enterprises face unprecedented challenges and risks in carrying out innovation activities.And how to quickly access innovation resources has attracted widespread attention of corporate managers and academia.Due to the limitations of firms’ own resources,they need to establish strategic relationships with external partners to improve the success rate of product innovation.Suppliers,as partners at the front end of the supply chain,have unique resources related to raw materials and components and are therefore highly favored by companies.Existing studies have found that buyer-supplier relationship contribute to the realization of collaborative innovation.However,due to the protection of their own interests and the possibility of taking risks,buyers and suppliers may engage in knowledge protection,opportunism,and other behaviors that hinder innovation activities in the process of cooperation.Therefore,there is a need to further explore what factors promote collaborative innovation generation in buyer-supplier relationship and how these factors avoid impediments to promote innovation generation in the relationship.The study takes Chinese manufacturing enterprises as the research object to explore the mechanisms by which buyer-supplier relationship influence innovation generation in relationship.Based organizational learning theory and relational view,and combing existing studies,we summarize two key factors that promote innovation generation in buyer-supplier relationship:cooperative ties and collaborative activities,and propose that relationship learning can be used as a mediating variable,and finally establish a conceptual model.Based on existing studies on innovation generation in relationship,we clarify the concept of relationship-based innovation,distinguish cooperative ties and collaborative activities in relationship,clarify the differences of the three dimensions of relationship learning,and propose corresponding hypotheses accordingly.The variables in the conceptual model were further defined operationally,and the main body of the questionnaire was formed by appropriate modifications based on the mature scale in the context of the study.Questionnaires were distributed by means of a large sample survey in order to investigate the relevant situation in the manufacturing industry in practice,and the data were processed using regression analysis to test the hypotheses.The findings show that cooperative ties and collaborative activities in buyer-supplier relationship all contribute positively to the three dimensions of relationship learning(information sharing,joint sense making,and relationship-specific memory),and that all three dimensions of relationship learning have a positive effect on relationship-based innovation.This reveals the antecedents that help buyer firms leverage their relationship with suppliers to achieve product innovation,demonstrates the important role of cooperative ties and collaborative activities in facilitating effective relationship,and the potential for successful innovation created by valuing the relationship learning process.The study explains how cooperative ties and collaborative activities positively guide innovation generation in relationship.That is,information sharing,joint sense making,and relationship-specific memory mediate the relationship between cooperative ties and relationship-based innovation,and between collaborative activities and relationship-based innovation respectively.The study also found that information sharing and joint sense making contribute to some extent to the accumulation and functioning of relationship-specific memory.Overall,the study explores the paths that guide innovation success in cooperative relationship,and points out that buyer firms should pay attention to both cooperative ties and collaborative activities with suppliers to establish effective strategic relationship.And it is necessary for firms to engage in relational learning in relationship to improve the ability to apply interactive knowledge to innovation activities and promote effective transformation of relationship resources into innovation outcomes.By exploring the innovation of enterprises through relationship with suppliers,we enrich the research related to relationship-based innovation and provide an empirical basis for how enterprises can establish effective supplier relationship to achieve collaborative innovation.