Assistant Professor Zhang's Research Published

Chun Zhang, assistant professor in the School of Business Administration, and her co-author, John W. Henke, Jr., of Oakland University, have published a paper in the Winter 2010 edition of Sloan Management Review.

To gain insights into how relational stress imposed by industrial customers impacts suppliers' willingness to share technology and invest in customer-related technology, Professors Zhang and Henke undertook an investigation of supplier innovation-related behavior in the North American automotive industry. They studied over 2000 buying situations involving Tier 1 suppliers to Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota over a three year period. Their findings show that a customer can increase supplier innovation activities by undertaking collaborative activities with its suppliers that mitigate the relational stress caused by its competitive activities with the same suppliers. Look for a copy online:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/