An operations and supply chain management perspective to product innovation

The critical role of product innovation in sustaining competitive advantage in the marketplace has long been acknowledged by both management scholars and practitioners. Although there are many studies on the success factors of product innovation or new product development, there is no comprehensive review of the antecedents of product innovation from the perspective of operations and supply chain management. This paper uses a systematic literature review to examine the antecedents of product innovation from the perspective of operations and supply chain management. Building upon the resource-based theory of competitive advantage, we grouped the identified antecedents into five categories: the value system, matching processes with strategy, knowledge management, firm capabilities, and social capital. We found that among the supply chain capabilities identified, the capabilities related to the value system are the ones most frequently addressed in the literature: partner innovativeness, partner involvement, network capability, and collaboration. We present a conceptual framework that can be used for further operationalization and supplementary validation and refinement. We also identify the limitations and potential future directions for research, which mainly include operationalization of the model, development of more understanding of the importance of product innovation capabilities, and incorporating a perspective of strategic management into the research on product innovation.