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.