Social Capital dimensions and the usage of Information Technology in buyer-supplier collaboration for New Product Development
Résumé
Companies increasingly rely on Information Technology (IT) to support collaboration with suppliers for New Product Development (NPD). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Social Capital dimensions (cognitive, structural and relational) on the use of IT functionalities (project and resource management, knowledge management and cooperative work) in a buyer-supplier collaboration for NPD. In this regard, we conducted an in-depth case study with two suppliers of a manufacturer from the railway industry. Our findings suggest that lack of consideration of social capital dimensions within IT design will negatively impact the efficiency of use of IT functionalities. Our results provide valuable insight for IT managers to accurately address the design of collaborative IT tools.