– 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.
– The authors utilized regression analytical technique and categorical moderation analytical technique to test their hypotheses on survey data of 579 firms.
– 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.
– There are potential limitations relating to the authors' use of secondary data. There is a need to investigate the processes through which outsourcing and subcontracting-in relate to innovation performance.
– An implication of this study is that in order to develop radical innovativeness, firms need to consider their strategic or competitive inclination when evaluating their outsourcing and subcontracting-in decisions and activities.
– There are also social implications since outsourcing and subcontracting-in activities involve social relationships.
– Linking boundary spanning activities of firms to innovation performance represents a contribution to the literature. Further, establishing that the effectiveness of such boundary activities depends on a firm's specific manufacturing strategy represents a contribution.
