Strategic Technological Sourcing Decisions in the Context of Timing and Market Strategies: An Empirical Analysis

In times of changing business models and international competition, there is an inherent need for companies to foster and develop mechanisms to absorb new technologies for innovative products and processes effectively. Such considerations lead to the strategic make-or-buy decision which was the subject of our research. This quantitative explanatory study in the German industry shows in particular that companies base their decision for internal or external sourcing on multiple weighted criteria with scoring models and, even more common, with portfolio matrices. These results are in common with recent research, however, other results are surprising, e.g. just a small minority of companies involve people from controlling and legal departments in these decision processes. The paper also reveals differences between companies with different timing and competitive strategies, which are in line with the proposed characteristics of these strategic focuses in literature. Implications for theory and practice are given to foster future research in this area.