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Outsourcing and Sustained Competitive Advantage : How do Swedish technical production firms in a competitive environment and high technical uncertainty find the right balance between outsourcing and in-house development that enhances their sustainable competitive advantage when they outsource their Research & Development externally?

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to find out when Research and Development (R&D) becomes a suitable attribute for a production company to outsource. In an environment where innovations are following up quickly up and uncertainty about the type of innovation and customer is a fact, external sourcing can bring a competitive advantage. The empirical evidence shows that when R&D is outsourced the total cost does not increase at a due cause of outsourcing in this given study.</p><p>Although a lot of theory explains outsourcing as a cost increasing factor, the internal experience and frequent relation between the technical production company Beta and its R&D vendor company Alfa can decrease costs considerably due to lower communication and governance costs. This was not explicitly expressed in related theory and is therefore a contribution to the academia as well as for managers who seek to find an answer to the question of when to outsource and when not to outsource.</p>

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:hh-5299
Date January 2010
CreatorsDunert, Sofie, Westerling, Patrik
PublisherHalmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET), Halmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, text

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