Supplier's sales engineer as a knowledge worker

The paper forms part of a multiple case study in progress that focuses on information relationships, i.e., the exchange of information and knowledge at the micro-social level between supplier and buyer firms in the fuzzy front end of product development. The micro-social level is made up of dyadic information relationships between the Design Engineer of buyer firms and the Sales Engineer of supplier firms. The case study explores the information relationship through the lens of three theoretical perspectives, namely: early supplier involvement in product development, knowledge management, and the concepts of social embeddedness and tie strengths belonging to economic sociology. The paper describes the concept of supplier’s Sales Engineer as a knowledge worker, and explains how the concept represents a specific type of supplier involvement in early product development. By using the preliminary findings of four case studies, the paper shows how the concept of the Sales Engineer as a knowledge worker has been understood and applied in practice The paper concludes with managerial implications regarding the conditions that need to be in place in order to make the knowledge transfer through the Sales Engineer robust and dependable.Product Innovation ManagementIndustrial Design Engineerin