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“Concurrent sourcing” is a term used by Parmigiani to describe the phenomenon where a firm simultaneously buys and makes the same good or service. The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions that suggest how concurrent sourcing affects performance.

Based on transaction cost, agency, neoclassical economic, knowledge‐based, and resource‐based theory, it is proposed to show how concurrent sourcing affects performance.

The paper argues that concurrent sourcing improves performance when firms face a combination of volume uncertainty, technological uncertainty, performance uncertainty, non‐decomposability, transaction‐specific investments, and strong internal and external capabilities.

The paper maps the relationships between concurrent sourcing and performance and discusses how these relationships can be modelled. The propositions and discussion offer researchers a starting‐point for further research.

The propositions that are developed suggest that managers should consider using concurrent sourcing when they face problems caused by volume uncertainty, technological uncertainty, performance uncertainty, non‐decomposability, and asset specificity. Concurrent sourcing can also be a way to exploit both strong internal capabilities and external suppliers' strong capabilities.

The main contribution is a number of propositions, explanations, and discussions regarding how concurrent sourcing affects performance of the market and the hierarchy.

Based on a theoretical framework of ambidexterity in technology sourcing beyond organizational and technological boundaries, this study aims to explore how start-ups balance technology sourcing in organizational ambidexterity (TSOA) to produce high venture performance.

A questionnaire survey is distributed among start-ups in the science and technology park of a university in eastern China, producing a total of 45 valid responses. The fuzzy-set approach to qualitative comparative analysis is used in this study.

The findings show that start-ups achieve high venture performance through external technology sourcing (external exploration and exploitation) in the initial stage. In the growth stage, start-ups adopt external and internal technology sourcing (internal exploration and exploitation) to produce high venture performance. The technology sourcing strategy in ambidextrous activity for start-ups is punctuated equilibrium and evolving from the external ambidexterity to internally and externally coordinate ambidexterity at entrepreneurial stages.

This study creatively adopts configuration-based thinking to investigate how to balance TSOA for high venture performance, extending the literature on technology sourcing and contributing to the balance theory of exploration and exploitation.

We argue that a foreign-based R&D subsidiary of a multinational enterprise (MNE) can potentially source knowledge from three diverse knowledge networks, namely (i) external knowledge network of the home country, (ii) external knowledge network of the host country, and (iii) internal (MNE) knowledge network. Drawing on the relative costs and benefits associated with the process of synergistic knowledge, this study examines whether a substitutive or a complementary relationship exists when two of the aforementioned networks collaborate in order to generate new knowledge at the subsidiary level. Our study’s sample is based on a survey questionnaire addressed to foreign-based R&D subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies. We assess the existence of complementarity/substitutability using the “production function approach.” Our results indicate that a complementary relationship exists between external knowledge network of the host and the home country, as well as between external knowledge network of the host country and internal knowledge network. On the other hand, external knowledge network of the home country and internal knowledge network form a substitutive relationship. Our study offers a more comprehensive view of the diverse sources/knowledge networks that R&D subsidiaries are sourcing knowledge from when compared to existing research. We also specify and account for the costs/benefits involved in knowledge sourcing and thereby detect possible substitution/complementarity between different sources of knowledge. So far, there has been limited to nonexistent research into the diversity of knowledge networks of R&D subsidiaries and the examination of potential substitutabilities and complementarities. Hence our empirical study contributes to the development of this particular research stream.

This study aims to examine the effects of external knowledge sourcing breadth and depth and explore whether there exists a complementary effect of breadth (or depth) and knowledge management (KM) capacity on firms’ innovation performance. Specifically, this study investigates the direct effects of breadth, depth and KM capacity on product and process innovation outcomes and tests whether complementary effects exist between breadth and KM capacity and between depth and KM capacity.

This study uses the survey data of 302 manufacturing firms in Thailand and uses ordinal regression analysis to test the hypotheses empirically.

Regression results reveal that breadth and KM capacity are essential for enhancing firms' innovation performance, while depth is not significant. However, the authors do not find a significance of complementary effects between breadth and KM capacity and depth and KM capacity on firms’ innovation performance.

This study provides additional evidence to contribute to an ongoing debate on what knowledge sourcing strategies (breadth or depth) are significant for enhancing firms’ innovations. Moreover, it explores whether complementary effects between KM capacity and breadth/depth exist in determining firms' innovation performance, which is a neglected issue in the existing literature.

As part of a new focus on a better balance of investment in innovation activities in developing countries, this study aims to understand the effects of technological attributes (technological complexity and type of technology) on manufacturing technology sourcing (whether firms choose either internal development or external sources).

Multiple-case studies were conducted in the Peruvian manufacturing sector.

The authors found that, across Peruvian manufacturing firms, they develop a certain manufacturing technology related to their capabilities. However, when the total cost of acquisition is lower than internal costs of developing technologies, they will choose external sources, regardless of their capabilities and complexity of the technology. In addition, analysis of the type of technology indicated that the pursuit of simultaneous exploration and exploitation occurs when firms use external sources rather than internal.

This study has the limitation that data have been collected years after the decision-making process; the results are based solely on the authors’ analysis using the case of Peruvian industry, and they do not track the impact on the performance of manufacturing technology decisions.

The findings have important implications for technology managers of South American manufacturing firms that are decision makers in the sourcing of new manufacturing technologies.

The results of this study provide literature with insights into technology sourcing strategy in developing countries and the importance of progress in transitioning to technological innovation and catchup.

Como parte de um novo foco em um melhor equilíbrio do investimento em atividades de inovação nos países em desenvolvimento, este estudo compreende os efeitos dos atributos tecnológicos (complexidade tecnológica e tipo de tecnologia) no suprimento de tecnologia de fabricação (se as empresas escolhem desenvolvimento interno ou fontes externas).

Estudos de casos múltiplos foram conduzidos no setor manufatureiro peruano.

Descobrimos que, em todas as empresas de fabricação peruanas, elas desenvolvem uma certa tecnologia de fabricação relacionada às suas capacidades. No entanto, quando o custo total de aquisição é menor do que os custos internos de desenvolvimento de tecnologias, eles escolhem fontes externas, independentemente de suas capacidades e complexidade da tecnologia. Além disso, a análise do tipo de tecnologia indicou que a busca da exploração e exploração simultâneas ocorre quando as empresas usam fontes externas em vez de internas.

Este estudo tem a limitação de que os dados foram coletados anos após o processo de tomada de decisão, os resultados são baseados exclusivamente em nossa análise usando o caso da indústria peruana e não acompanhamos o impacto sobre o desempenho das decisões de tecnologia de fabricação.

Os resultados deste estudo fornecem à literatura insights sobre a estratégia de fornecimento de tecnologia nos países em desenvolvimento e a importância do progresso na transição para a inovação tecnológica e o catch-up.

Sourcing de tecnologia, Tecnologia de fabricação, Peru

Como parte de un nuevo enfoque en un mejor equilibrio de la inversión en actividades de innovación en los países en desarrollo, este estudio comprende los efectos de los atributos tecnológicos (complejidad tecnológica y tipo de tecnología) en la fuente de tecnología de manufactura (ya sea que las empresas elijan desarrollo interno o fuentes externas).

Se realizaron estudios de casos múltiples en el sector manufacturero peruano.

Los resultados muestran que, en todas las empresas manufactureras peruanas, desarrollan una cierta tecnología de manufactura relacionada con sus capacidades. Sin embargo, cuando el costo total de adquisición es menor que el costo interno de desarrollar tecnologías, elegirán fuentes externas, independientemente de sus capacidades y la complejidad de la tecnología. Además, el análisis del tipo de tecnología indicó que la búsqueda simultánea de exploración y explotación ocurre cuando las empresas utilizan fuentes externas en lugar de internas.

Este estudio tiene la limitante de que los datos fueron recopilados luego del proceso de toma de decisiones, los resultados se basan únicamente en la industria peruana y no analizamos el impacto que tuvieron las decisiones recolectadas.

Los resultados de este estudio proporcionan información sobre la estrategia de abastecimiento de tecnología en los países en desarrollo y la importancia del progreso en la transición a la innovación tecnológica y la puesta al día.

Fuente de tecnología, Tecnología de fabricación, Perú

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into strategic sourcing concerning facilities management (FM) and how it can contribute to a sourcing decision that combines the benefits of internal and external provision with consideration of business risk and cost.

The paper investigates a strategic sourcing and procurement process in a large public organisation in Denmark based on participating in internal meetings, a workshop, document studies and interviews. The process is compared to a new ISO standard with guidance on strategic sourcing and development of FM agreements.

A problem in the new ISO standard is that it is based on sequential model starting with detailing the demand and needs before investigating sourcing option. The case shows that the way needs are specified are depending on the chosen sourcing models. Based on a thorough analysis, the organisation decided to change the sourcing strategy with insourcing the most critical building-related activities and changing the procurement strategy from one integrated FM contract to three bundled and seven single-service contracts. The concept of right-sourcing is discussed.

The research is based on a study of one public organisation, which limits the possibility to generalise the results. However, it provides detailed insights into the strategic sourcing process in FM, which can give inspiration for practitioners and further research.

The paper throws light on a strategic sourcing process which is rarely available in public because of confidentiality considerations, and it provides the first evaluation of the new ISO standard from 2016.

Openness to external knowledge has recently gained popularity as a means for firms to complement and leverage internal knowledge in the pursuit of innovation outcomes. However, conflicting evidence exists regarding the role of openness in external knowledge acquisition. This paper aims to propose that openness to external knowledge has a nonlinear effect on innovation performance and that this nonlinear relationship is contingent on an ambidextrous knowledge search strategy.

Based on original large-scale survey of 246 interfirm collaborations in the high-technology industry, it is found that the impact of openness to external knowledge on innovation performance exhibits an inverted-U shape and that this relationship is affected by an ambidextrous knowledge search strategy.

The results indicate that an ambidextrous knowledge strategy that addresses the depth and breadth of external knowledge significantly influences a firm’s ability to derive benefits from increased openness to external knowledge. Empirically, the authors provide an original contribution to high-technology firms by exploring how and why an ambidextrous knowledge strategy can be a critical catalyst spurring innovation performance.

The research scope is limited to a single industry. Further research could extend the theoretical framework to multiple industries, which may increase the likelihood of innovation theory development.

The results suggest that firms opening up the boundaries of their innovation activity to engage in external knowledge are able to leverage their in-house innovation to enhance their innovation performance. The authors advocate that in innovation management domains, greater emphasis is needed on how openness to external knowledge has more positive impacts not only on innovation performance but also on innovation implemented management.

This study is among the first to investigate the ambidextrous knowledge search effect on the external knowledge of high-technology firms. This paper contributes to the theoretical and practical literature concerning openness innovation and knowledge management by reflecting on the ambidextrous knowledge search strategy.

Billions of dollars are being poured into developing nations by multinationals as part of their diversification, divestiture, facility location, and supplier selection strategies. By integrating the literature in international business, marketing, purchasing, and operations management, a contingency model is developed to minimize the overall costs of such decisions. This model provides linkages between the type of product, organizational and country characteristics, and the logistics and sourcing strategies. In addition, it provides specific recommendations to government officials in helping their countries become global platforms for manufacturing and attracting foreign investment.

Organizational innovations are closely associated with organizational knowledge, and thus a firm builds its knowledge base to enhance its innovative performance. However, insights into this process are still limited, especially in the context of firms in developing countries. Building on the dynamic managerial capabilities literature and open innovation paradigm, this paper attempts to fill this gap by developing and empirically testing a model that investigates how firms in developing countries accumulate knowledge to innovate.

A model of a firm's knowledge accumulation and innovation is proposed in which it specifies relationships among absorptive capacity, knowledge breadth, research and development (R&D), knowledge depth, exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, and then it is empirically tested by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique based on the surveyed data of Vietnamese firms.

The results indicate that absorptive capacity positively influences both knowledge breadth and knowledge depth, knowledge breadth positively influences R&D, R&D positively influences exploratory innovation and knowledge depth, and knowledge depth positively influences exploratory and exploitative innovation.

The study proposes an “acquire and develop” open innovation model for firms in developing countries in which firms acquire external technologies and then develop R&D (develop and design) capability to adapt acquired technologies to their local conditions to create new organizational-specific capabilities and exploratory innovation.

This study argues that external knowledge acquisition is beneficial to innovative performance of firms in developing countries via renewing their knowledge base. Furthermore, the study provides the unique evidence that novel external knowledge acquisition and internal R&D are fit to each other in the fit-as-mediation form in which novel external knowledge acquisition is mediated by R&D to positively influence exploratory innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to fill a significant research gap in academic literature pertaining to open innovation (OI). To do so, this paper empirically tests the impact of organizational culture, employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards as antecedents and mediators of OI adoption in organizations, facilitating a more thorough understanding by using an empirical multi-level approach.

This paper analyzes the results of the “Identification of Industrial Needs for Open Innovation Education in Europe” survey through a quantitative analysis using logistic regression models. This survey includes 528 employees working in 28 different industrial sectors in 37 countries, most of which are in Europe.

The results suggest a positive impact of organizational characteristics on the adoption of OI (i.e. including the adoption of outside-in and inside-out OI activities in participating organizations), showing that the openness of an organization’s culture increases its likelihood of adopting an OI paradigm. More importantly, the results highlight the positive mediating effect of employees’ knowledge and rewards on this relationship.

The data set that was the basis of this paper was generated in European countries, the results of the analysis are limited and appropriate for this region and may vary when applied to other regions of the world.

The proposed multi-level approach offers new insight into organizational knowledge. It enables the improvement of OI and knowledge management practices in organizations by assisting practitioners and academics in recognizing the relationship between organizational culture; employees’ knowledge, attitudes and rewards; and the adoption of the OI paradigm.

This paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful OI adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for OI activities.

This paper presents a new framework which links organizational culture to OI, moving on from merely examining culture in terms of its positive or negative impact on OI adoption. It contributes to research on the OI paradigm and knowledge management by highlighting the significance of antecedents and mediators from a multi-level perspective using multiple units of analysis. Most previous studies focus on a single unit of analysis.