Related to this research theme a number of research projects have been conducted. These projects aimed at investigating purchasing and supplier involvement in product development processes. The first research project has been based on some 21 case studies, carried out in more than five different industries in the Netherlands and Sweden. It has resulted in a framework that can be used to guide and monitor effective purchasing involvement in product innovation, as described in the PhD-thesis ‘Purchasing Involvement in Product Development’ by dr. Finn Wynstra.

A second PhD project started in October 1999, and aims at validating, complementing and refining the framework, and at the development of more detailed managerial guidelines for implementing and measuring (the effects of) supplier involvement in product innovation processes. This project is mainly based on in-depth case studies and carried out by Ferrie van Echtelt. This research was completed in 2004 through the PhD thesis ‘New Product Development: Shifting Suppliers Into Gear’.

Parallel to this second project, two smaller projects were carried out:
1) a multi-national mail-survey project investigating the effects of purchasing involvement on product development results, and
2) a series of case-studies on the use of a computer supported project management tool for differentiating various supplier roles in a product development project.