Problem Statement

 Studies routinely document the practices of supply chain collaboration or innovation,

yet they only partially cover customer or supplier network of the firm (Sandberg, 2007;
Bellamy et al., 2014; Mazzola et al., 2015; Sumo et al., 2016) or fail to distinguish
between radical and incremental innovations (Lauetal.,2010; Hui etal.,2015;
Kimetal.,2010; Atalayetal.,2017). Therefore, notwithstanding that the field of supply
chain management (SCM) is becoming mature (Singhal and Singhal, 2012; Helmuth et
al., 2015), radical innovation is under-researched in SCM.
 Knowledge about how R&D resources interact with imitation strategy to affect radical
versus incremental technological innovation remains limited. This void in the literature
is surprising because the extent to which a firm’s imitation strategy impacts
technological innovation may be expected to depend upon the level of a firm’s own R&D
resources.
 R&D resources may be seen as a potential boundary condition for the innovation
consequences of imitation strategy.
 The impact of trust on collaboration for innovation was conducted on the businesses of
developed countries; less attention has been paid to developing countries which are
perhaps radically different.
 The driving factors of collaboration and innovation explored in the developed market
are unlikely to apply in emerging markets.
 The lack of attention about IT’s contribution to the development of collaborative
relationships with supply chain partners and the subsequent effect on a firms’
innovation.
 Although previous studies have addressed explorative and exploitative innovation in the
context of SCC, it has not been done with regard to IT. Furthermore, the empirical
evidence with regard to SCC is still mixed in relation to explorative innovations.
 The performance (or outcomes) associated with exploratory learning is often found to
be high in flexibility and variety of innovation but low in the degree of innovation
efficiency/rate.
 Innovations need to be both frequent and radical for organizations to maintain
competitiveness.
Leveraging supply chain collaboration in pursuing radical innovation
This study attempts to bridge the gap emphasized by the aforementioned questions. Using the
theory of absorptive capacity in the context of inter-firm partnership, this study predicts the
positive impact of supply chain collaboration on innovation, both incremental and radical. (Base
Paper)

(Emerging Economies of Southeast Asia: Achieving and increasing radical innovations through
collaborating with buyers and suppliers by fostering trust: the Case of Viet Nam)
According to the relational exchange theory, trust is considered as an effective defence against
opportunistic behaviours. Researchers investigating the relationship between trust and
collaboration for innovation also confirm that trust plays an important role in building supplier-
buyer collaborations (Brockman, Park, and Morgan 2017; Hemmert et al. 2016; Whipple, Griffis,
and
Daugherty 2013; Yi, Gang, and Taiwen 2015)

(The impact of imitation strategy and R&D resources on incremental and radical
innovation: evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms)
Institutional theory emphasizes that adopting institutionalized behaviors can enhance a firm’s
legitimacy (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Along this line, empirical evidence shows that a firm’s
tendency to imitate pioneering technologies that lie within a market’s zone of acceptability will
be seen to be more legitimate by critical market audiences, thereby helping to improve an
imitator’s market performance (Jonsson and Regne´r 2009; Zuckerman 1999).

(The mediating role of supply chain collaboration on the relationship between

information technology and innovation)
Specifically, we contribute to the literature by applying the RBV theory to evaluate the
mediating impact of SCC on the relationship between IT and innovation (explorative and
exploitative). Our model estimates indicate that IT has a positive and significant effect on
innovation, both explorative and exploitative, and that SCC partially mediates the relationship
between IT and innovation.

(Complementarity effect of supply chain competencies on innovation capability)

The discussion regarding the inter-relationships between knowledge exploration and
exploitation using the economics theory of complementarity, and empirically examines the
complementary effect between exploration and exploitation in innovation. The theoretical
underpinning of complementarity is the economic theory of complementarity, which states that
when the price of one good, say coffee, decreases, demand for a complementary good, such as
sugar, increases because coffee and sugar are complementary parts of a breakfast (Milgrom
and Roberts, 1995). Therefore, economics of scope exists in complementarity as the operations
cost of making and selling two or more goods together is lower than doing them separately
(Panzar and Willig, 1981). The analysis of complementarity can be found at two different levels.