Utilizing inter-organizational relationships for new product development performance: A test of possible mediation effects

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether collaborative experience can act as a mediating variable on the use of inter-organizational relationships on NPD performance. The paper tests two different research questions: 1) Is there a possible mediating effect of experience on the linkage between inter-organizational relationships and performance? And If yes: what is the nature of the mediating effect and the resulting influence on performance? The paper is motivated by the growing literature on the importance of inter-organizational relationships created by the idea that firms operate in networks and not in solitude and should therefore be strategic about who to include in e.g. product development projects and how much to include the selected partners in the projects. A growing literature has concluded that trust and experience are vital tacit skills to build, which may be crucial in establishing successful relationships. However, the empirical evidence reported in the literature is still relatively scarce.
This paper therefore aims at testing the role of previous experience and norms for sharing
knowledge with partners for successful collaborative ventures especially regarding NPD
performance.