Intangible Resource Flow as an Antecedent of New Product Development Success in Buyer-Seller Relationships

There is currently considerable interest in the co-creation of value by sellers and buyers. It is often noted in the literature that much, if not most, of the innovation in product development derives from the buyer rather than the seller. Sellers therefore need a means of judging which of the relationships that they have with buyers has the greatest potential for value creation through new product innovation. Because the flow of intangible resources through buyer-seller relationships is an important contributor to new product development, this paper investigates the literature on relationship marketing, new product development, innovation and intellectual capital, and proposes a conceptual model of the potential for intangible resource flow from buyer to seller and its relationship to the success of new product development. The potential for the intangible resource flow is conceptualized in terms of the availability of intangible resources in the buyer and the attributes of the buyer´s boundary personnel.