Strategic Outsourcing, Innovation and Global Supply Chains

INTRODUCTION

The issue of strategic outsourcing has recently become the focus of renewed academic interest and has increasingly come to bear on managerial practice. This is particularly true when examining the role of outsourcing product and service innovation in the development of a firm’s competitive advantage and growth. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the strategic outsourcing of decision-making alters a firm’s business model, as well as its value proposition and operating model. Secondly, strategic outsourcing intensifies the vertical relationships within the supply chain; this leads to the need to develop the relational skills of the firms involved – especially those of the focal firm (the strategic centre) – in order ...