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Make-buy decisions in the face of radical innovations. 10.17863/CAM.13988 Perrons, Robert Kirby Some research in the area of make-buy decisions for new technologies suggests that it is a good idea for a company to pursue a fairly rigorous “make” policy in the early days of a potentially disruptive innovation. Other studies prescribe exactly the opposite, promoting instead a “buy” strategy. This lack of convergence points to the fact that the scheme of categorization used to analyze make-buy decisions in the face of radical innovations is not yet complete. Accordingly, this thesis builds upon prior work on make-buy decisions and disruptive technologies, and constructs two new hypotheses by introducing evidence from research in the areas of (1) supplier relationships and (2) industry clockspeed. Using a three-phase research design involving both case studies and a survey, this research shows that close relationships between customer firms and principal suppliers that are built on trust and personal relationships do not play an important long-term role in the development of radical innovations. Thus, while previous research in this area underlines the value of these relationships during the day-to-day operations of a business, this evidence draws into question whether they are helpful in the face of a radical innovation. The results also show that an industry’s clockspeed has no significant bearing on the success or failure of any particular make-buy strategy for a radical innovation. Because many of the prescriptive frameworks and strategic formulas put forward in the literature for make-buy decisions involving radical innovations are based on observations from fast clockspeed industries, this conclusion effectively broadens the potential applicability of prior research in this area. University of Cambridge 2004-10-26 Thesis Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) eng http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/236598 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/236598 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/e3d035fc-61e9-42a9-bcb9-9bb93bdb61e8/download 705a54591da0e54542077d66e95881e1 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/7af97bb5-657c-4056-8ed3-ffa666fa296f/download 48dcdf38f646da27e5e4bc6c1893d4fc https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/