A holistic view of knowledge integration in collaborative supply chains

New product development (NPD) projects offer a unique opportunity to examine knowledge integration themes in a collaborative network. We propose a finer grained view of knowledge integration mechanisms in collaborative supply chains. Specifically, we propose two different types of mechanisms that are in play within a collaborative supply chain; short-term knowledge sharing and iterative knowledge enrichment. Using data from a large and diverse set of 432 NPD projects, we investigate the effects of knowledge sharing and enrichment between firms and their collaborative network partners, on product concept effectiveness and process performance. Our findings suggest that knowledge sharing and enrichment are significant mechanisms for enterprise-wide knowledge integration in collaborative networks. In addition, upstream knowledge sharing and enrichment has a significant influence on both product concept effectiveness and manufacturing process performance, over and above the effects of downstream knowledge sharing and enrichment. The relationship of upstream and downstream knowledge sharing and enrichment on product concept effectiveness and process performance had varying effects based on the contexts of product type, stage in the product life cycle and project size, indicating a context-specific influence of knowledge strategies. The implication of our results on academic theory and managerial practice is offered. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.