External Involvement and New Product Performance: The Mediating Role of New Product Advantage

The focus of this study is on the effects of customer and supplier involvement on new product performance, as well as the mediating role of new product advantage. We established a conceptual framework in which external involvement is linked to new product advantage and new product performance. Subsequently, the model was tested by data collected from 124 manufacturing companies in China. The obtained results demonstrated that customer and supplier involvement can contribute to the improvement of new product advantage. And the new product advantage completely mediates the relationships between two types of external involvement and new product performance. These findings have valuable implications for academicians and practitioners in both the external involvement and new product development areas.