Publications
Publications
- February 2013
- Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice
Sustaining Innovation When Outsourcing Components in Multi-technology, Multi-component Systems
By: Ian Mackenzie and Casimer DeCusatis
Abstract
Firms producing multi-technology, multi-component systems are increasingly outsourcing selected components to achieve both reduced cost and enhanced innovation benefits. Given typical inter-dependence between innovation at the system and component levels, an important challenge for the system firm is to align innovation trajectories, priorities, and pacing between the system and component firms and sustain overall system-level innovation over the longer term. We present two longitudinal case studies, drawn from the IT industry, which provide contrasting examples of outsourcing strategies in terms of the number of suppliers per component and the inter-firm arrangements that a system firm put in place to align innovation. These cases help us to identify the range of outsourcing strategies that system firms could pursue and the factors that appear to influence which one is most appropriate.
Keywords
Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Alignment; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry
Citation
Mackenzie, Ian, and Casimer DeCusatis. "Sustaining Innovation When Outsourcing Components in Multi-technology, Multi-component Systems." Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice 15, no. 1 (February 2013).