The path of innovation: purchasing and supplier involvement into new product development

Towards this end, we develop a theoretical framework and test it through a survey conducted on a sample of 498 companies worldwide. Results show that innovation, as a category priority, does lead to emphasize supplier collaboration and strategic sourcing which, in turn, ensure better innovation performance. Empirical evidence also shows that, on the one hand, adequate purchasing (managers) knowledge enables greater supplier collaboration and strategic sourcing; on the other hand, technological uncertainty put greater emphasis on innovation strategy as well as on strategic sourcing.