Customer induced innovations

An aspect of innovation in the relationship between small manufacturing firms (SMFs) and their multinational corporation (MNC) customers is addressed. In an innovation-based industrial environment, the MNC customers, who are globally oriented, seek the best solutions to the development of innovations for their products and production processes. The SMFs in their roles as suppliers of engineering parts, components and services, attempt to provide segments of that comprehensive solution sought by the MNCs. Necessarily, the major goal of these activities is dictated by the customers who shape the final result. As each party has its own economic and strategic agenda, a complex relationship ensues. SMFs are simple organizations and this type of relationship requires a framework of exchange that enables transactions and performances to be meaningful and yield useful results. The basis for such a framework is analyzed and proposed in this paper.