Abstract:
This study concerns facilitating organisational capability for outsourcing
innovation, enabling firms to take advantage of its many benefits,
(e.g., reduced costs, increased flexibility, access to better expertise
and increased business focus), whilst mitigating its risks.
Its purpose is to develop a generic holistic model to aid firms successfully
outsource innovation.
The model is developed in two stages using a qualitative theory building
research design. The initial stage develops a preliminary
model which is subsequently validated and refined during the second
stage.
Guided by the research aim, template analysis is used to inductively
form an innovation outsourcing template from a literature data set
assessed for its suitability. The template is interpreted as an innovation
outsourcing archetype to produce a framework. This is explored,
with the aid of influence diagrams, to make explicit the associations
between innovation outsourcing capabilities, process and performance.
The outcome is a set of propositions which constitute a preliminary
innovation outsourcing model.
The propositions which form the preliminary model are deductively
explored to identify whether they also exist in a different data set.
A methodically designed semi-structured interview survey is executed
with the aid of a rich picture survey instrument to gather data for
this purpose. The data is analysed through pattern matching and
explanation building to explore the correlations which constitute the
model. Where they correlate as predicted, propositions are confirmed.
Where they do not, an explanation is sought and tested. The outcome
is a validated innovation outsourcing model.
The contribution to knowledge is an innovation outsourcing model
which aids the realisation of performance. The model achieves this
through a three-stage process which enables the alignment of capability
to outsourced innovation activity, and makes actual performance
outcomes, rather than expected benefits, the focus of innovation outsourcing
aims.