Supply Chain Knowledge Integration in Emerging Economies

Firms in developed economies have been purchasing from firms in emerging economies for years, but they typically purchase low value, low margin items. Opportunities have arisen for emerging economy manufacturers to supply higher value products and services to firms in developed economies. In today’s global, knowledge based economy, suppliers must have cutting edge knowledge, and they must constantly upgrade their knowledge to maintain a competitive advantage. When supplying high-value products, complex knowledge based interactions between the buyer and supplier are necessary. A conceptual model is developed in this chapter, proposing that if suppliers in emerging economies are committed to long term relationships with developed economy customers, they can increase the level of knowledge integration in the relationship, and in turn, improve performance. The primary contribution of this chapter is to show that firms in emerging economies can achieve sales growth by becoming critical links in today’s global, knowledge based supply chains.