Four main project characteristics influence an alliance:

• Commitment - willingness to invest money, time, or other resources into the collaboration
• Intellectual property management – managing ownership of new ideas and control over their dissemination
• Coordination –communicated interdependence between parties
• Communication processes – exchange of ideas and information among individuals and organizations

Project data analysis 
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When small businesses co-locate in a university research and development setting, there are opportunities to enhance their image by building on the credibility that is attached to the university research and development facility.
Literature review and longitudinal case study results.
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A fourteen item assessment tool regarding various support aspects provided by a supplier at different points of the New Product Development process including, the product concept and functional design, product structural design and engineering and process design and engineering. Each items is to be rated by the manufacutrer on a scale of 1-5 on how well they provided that specific support and each item is assigned an importance weight by the manufacturer. A total score is calculated to reveal how supportive that supplier is to the assessing manufacturer.
Case Study.
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Based on empirical data collected from 170 purchasing managers, Dickson identified quality, cost and delivery performance history as the three most important criteria in supplier selection.
Source: Dickinson, G. W. (1966). In: De Toni, A., & Nassimbeni, G. (2001)

Firms that encourage the free circulation of information and knowledge among those responsible for a new product, and that prevent specialist tunnel-vision in problem solving, appear to come up with better products faster, and use fewer man-hours in doing so.
Findings from literature review by authors.
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Use information technology to maintain an electronic connection to customers and external partners in order to make design decisions fasters.
Survey of 214 manufacturing firms
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When outside vendors are miles away, be cautious when trying to do the job without face-to-face meetings. This may cause team members to work without a clear sign-off on functional specifications, and hence unnecessarily duplicated work may be done.
Cast study example.
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