Collaborative New Product Development in SMEs and Large Industrial Firms: Relationships Upstream and Downstream in the Supply Chain

The aim of this chapter is to compare collaborative new product development (CNPD) established by industrial companies with their suppliers and customers, according to their size and the type of innovation generated. To do so, eight in-depth case studies were analyzed, based on semi-structured interviews. The findings show that CNPD with suppliers in more active than with clients. The results also show that firm size is important in CNPD activities namely when product differentiation and large scale production activities are at stake. From another perspective, the results show that the development of processes and management methodologies in upstream activities are not extensively used. The chapter contributes to knowledge about CNPD by comparing how upstream and downstream are affected based on firm size and the type of innovation generated.