Strategic sourcing of industrial technology: an empirical study among British managers

Abstract

The authors present the attitudes of senior British managers regarding which technologies will become most important in global competition, together with their opinions on prospective changes in sources and sourcing arrangements. Although exploratory, the data indicate that technology is perceived as an important factor in competitiveness, while speeding up the process of exploitation is a vital new challenge facing companies both internally and in terms of external sourcing or collaborative relationships. Managers are seeing that one way to solve this problem may be through different sourcing patterns. Sourcing pattern changes will not be the same for all technologies, since their strategic importance is shifting in the future. There may be, for example, increased collaboration for sourcing electronics and telecommunications technologies and technologies associated with environmental issues. At the same time, the accelerating pace of technological change also increases the uncertainty associated with innovating, thereby promoting collaboration as a response to reduce risk.<>