Supplier innovation management - Evaluation of supplier innovation

Firms increasingly rely on the collaboration with suppliers in their innovation processes, as products, processes, and services become increasingly complex. Although the concept of harnessing supplier innovation is not new, the companies are only scratching the potential of supplier innovations, and companies need more methods to manage supplier innovation. As part of supplier innovation management the need to evaluate supplier innovation is emphasised by managers. Companies need, for example, to be able to identify how innovative their suppliers are, and how beneficial the supplier innovations are. Within the literature on the management of innovation, measures of aspects of innovation management are frequently proposed, responding to the needs of both firms and academics to understand the effectiveness of innovation actions. However the discussion, how these measures can be applied to evaluate supplier innovation when aiming to enhance supplier innovation is limited.
In this study, we answer to this call and investigate (1) Why supplier innovation needs to be evaluated? (2) How to evaluate supplier innovation (when aiming to enhance it)? We use a qualitative multiple case study with 3 cases to answer these questions. The empirical data includes interviews of purchasing managers and focus group discussion. As a result, we propose a framework of evaluating supplier innovation based on previous literature of supply management and organizational innovation, and empirical data.