Recent strategy research explains why firms sometimes make-and-buy (not make-or-buy)products simultaneously, but lacks explanations of how they strike the make-buy balance. We respond by developing a framework featuring two determinants of the balance: resource cospecialization and supplier...

This paper uses the notion of contracting strategy to advance research in plural sourcing. We develop and test a theoretical framework to explain how plural-sourcing firms strike the make-and-buy balance depending on their contracting strategy. The focal firm’s choice of a contracting strategy...