In the literature on interorganizational collaboration in product development, considerable attention is given to supplier role classifications. Such classifications often link to a supplier's position in the overall supply chain, but the claim that this position has a substantial impact on its product development activities has seldom been empirically validated. The results from the present survey among Swedish automotive suppliers demonstrate that supplier product development activity is significantly affected by the position of the supplier in the supply chain and the supplier's strategic focus on innovation. While the latter has a stronger impact on product development activities, there is also an interaction effect implying that the effects of a supplier's innovation strategy are contingent on its supply chain position. Contrary to expectations, customer development commitment does not have any significant direct effect on supplier product development activities. Instead, this relation is fully mediated by supplier innovation strategy. These findings imply that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, product development activities are not strictly organized in ''chains.'' Although supply chains can be useful metaphors for understanding the distribution of regular production activities between firms, they arguably apply less to the distribution of product development activities.

Intense competition and structural changes characterize the car industry. Several trends (i.e. general changes over time) concerning sourcing strategies and supplier relations can therefore be identified. The article aims to analyze how these trends correspond to the actual situation in the car industry. Based on a survey answered by both car manufacturers and first tier suppliers, this article provides facts and analyses regarding sourcing‐related trends over the past decade as well as some future predictions. The results show that both car manufacturers and suppliers continue to reduce product development time. They also increase supplier involvement in product development and the share of inbound JIT‐deliveries. However, while suppliers increase their outsourcing and globalization of production and product development activities, car manufacturers do not. Only some of the identified sourcing‐related trends are actually supported by the presented results. Hence, this article modulates the picture of the current development within the car industry.

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Based on an efficiency model presented by Richardson (1972), this article addresses the efficiency and organizing of activity structures. While Richardson's model is activity based, it allows analysis of the efficiency in industrial networks where boundaries other than firm boundaries delimit the unit of analysis. Richardson's model is used here for analyzing the activity structure created for the development and manufacture of the Volvo S80. More specifically, Volvo's relations with two of its module-/systems-suppliers were studied. The cases show that the actors involved strive to achieve efficiency through realizing scale benefits where possible. These potential scale benefits are, however, limited by the actors' striving to create unique end products. These contradictory efforts lead to a situation in which a number of different dependencies between various activities need to be coordinated. The characteristics of the activity dependencies thus have strong implications for the organizing of the activity structure. In contrast to traditional economic theory, the present analysis shows that strong dependencies between activities need not necessarily be coordinated within the firm boundary, i.e. through hierarchy. Instead, the analysis reveals that both formal and informal organizational units, some temporary and others more long term, can be created to coordinate strong activity (inter-)dependencies through relationship exchange. It is also concluded that alternative organizational solutions always exist, thus generating dynamics that continuously develop the network. Each organizing mode thus creates new possibilities for technical and organizational innovations. Introduction-A background to the Volvo S80 Volvo introduced the S80-model in the summer of 1998. The S80 was the first model based on Volvo's completely new platform P2, which forms the basis of a number of derivative car models. For the development of the P2-platform and the S80-model, Volvo altered its relations with a number of suppliers, and thereby its network.