Supply Chain Technology Spillover, Customer Concentration, and Product Inventions

In this paper, we empirically examine how a supplier firm benefits from supply chain technology spillover in its product invention, and how customer concentration mitigates such a positive effect. Using a panel of approximately 1,670 U.S. technology-intensive supplier firms during the period 2001-2013, we find that a supplier firm that learns more from its supply chain partners (i.e., buyer firms) launches more valuable new products (measured by stock market reactions). However, customer concentration weakens this positive spillover effect because it narrows a supplier firm's technology search scope. This study helps explain the collaboration–competition relationship in a supply chain from the perspective of product invention