Internal and external sources of technology : the impact of the sourcing balance on the transformative- and innovative capacity of a company

The present paper investigates how the sourcing balance impacts the two R&D capabilities ‘transformative capacity’ and ‘innovative capacity’. Based on previ-ous examples of companies, in which the sourcing policy affected either one of the capacities, this paper proposes the sourcing balance as a tool to increase those two R&D capabilities. This study provides additional theoretical background on the effects of transformative capacity and innovative capacity and why a company is advised to achieve high performance in both activities. The relationship between the sourcing balance and the two constructs was expected to be positive. The find-ings, however, found no evidence that the sourcing balance has an effect on either transformative capacity or innovative capacity.