Managing the Supplier--Supplier Interface in Product Development: The Moderating Role of Technological Newness (Survey‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Many products, such as airplanes, automobiles, appliances and consumer electronics, require seamless integration of components from first-tier suppliers. For example, different first-tier suppliers provide a multi-touch display screen, an applications chip and a plastic case for Apple's iPhone. These components must fit together and function properly in the final product. Thus, when developing products, buyers must manage the interface among interdependent first-tier suppliers whose components connect with each other. Interactions between buyers and first-tier suppliers during product development have been extensively studied (e.g., Clark 1989; Ragatz, Handfield and Scannell 1997; Petersen, Handfield and Ragatz 2003; Koufteros, Cheng and Lai 2007; Parker, Zsidisin and Ragatz 2008; Mishra and Shah 2009). Recently, researchers have highlighted the importance of moving beyond the buyer-supplier dyad in supply chain research to focus on the supply network (Choi and Kim 2008; Choi and Dooley 2009). However, empirical studies of interactions between two first-tier suppliers and the buyer have not specifically focused on product development (Wu and Choi 2005; Choi and Wu 2009a, b; Wu, Choi and Rungtusanatham 2010).