Citation
(2006), "2006 Awards for Excellence", Management Decision, Vol. 44 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/md.2006.00144haa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2006 Awards for Excellence
The following article was selected for this year’s Outstanding Paper Award for Management Decision
‘‘What the hare can teach the tortoise about make-buy strategies for radical innovations’’
Robert K. Perrons Shell International BV, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
Matthew G. RichardsMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Ken PlattsUniversity of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Purpose – The purpose of this investigation is to help establish: whether or not strong relationships between suppliers and customers improve performance; and if prescriptive frameworks on outsourcing radical innovations are dependent on industry clockspeed.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of UK-based manufacturers, followed by a statistical analysis.Findings – Long-term supplier links seem not to play a role in the development of radical innovations. Moreover, industry clockspeed has no significant bearing on the success or failure of any outsourcing strategy for radically new technologies.Research limitations/implications – Literature about outsourcing in the face of radical innovation can be more confidently applied to industries of all clockspeeds.Practical implications – Prescriptions for fast clockspeed industries should be applied more broadly: all industries should maintain a high degree of vertical integration in the early days of a radical innovation.Originality/value – Prior papers had explored whether or not a company should outsource radical innovations, but none had determined if this is equally true for slow industries and fast ones. Therein lies the original contribution of this paper.
Keywords: Innovation, Make or buy decisions, Outsourcing, Supplier relations, United Kingdomwww.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00251740510597707This article originally appeared in Management Decision, Volume 43 Number 5, 2005 www.emeraldinsight.com/authors