Outsourcing, subcontracting-in and radical innovativeness: The moderating effect of manufacturing strategy

Purpose – The authors aim to develop and test hypotheses that link outsourcing and subcontracting-in activities of small high-tech firms to their radical innovativeness. In addition, they seek to investigate how a firm's strategy moderates the associations between their outsourcing and subcontracting-in activities and radical innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach – The authors utilized regression analytical technique and categorical moderation analytical technique to test their hypotheses on survey data of 579 firms. Findings – Results show that outsourcing has a positive association with radical innovativeness. In contrast, subcontracting-in shows a negative association with radical innovativeness. Finally, the influence of both outsourcing and subcontracting-in activities on radical innovativeness are contingent upon a firm's manufacturing strategy. Research limitations/implications – There are potential limitations relating to the authors' use of secondary data. There is a need to investigate the...