Value co‐creation and resource based perspectives for strategic sourcing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and illustrate a theoretically grounded framework capable of strategic guidance in making sourcing decisions.Design/methodology/approach – Based on literature review and secondary data from the US operation of 7‐Eleven, a large international retailer, this study develops and supports a framework for understanding and undertaking business process sourcing decisions. The framework considers internal core competencies, as well as the role of external actors in value creation, in analyzing sourcing decisions for business processes.Findings – Case analysis reveals that a firm's successful sourcing decisions can be explained by resource based view (RBV) and value co‐creation theories. RBV is shown to provide an internal view of the firm considering its core competencies, while value co‐creation illuminates the external perspective considering the role of customers when making sourcing decisions. Further, these theories can be decomposed and simplified, thereby p...