ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a conceptual model of sourcing from extant literature. It discusses perspectives from institutional theory in order to investigate the effects of institutional contexts of the countries from where products are sourced on the operations of firms engaged in international sourcing. The chapter draws to develop propositions to explain the effects of such institutional contexts on product-quality failures. It discusses various initiatives that organizations can take in order to manage these contexts and help prevent product-quality failures by using insights from organizational learning, social capital theory, and the resource-based view. The chapter examines international sourcing through a multitheoretic lens to investigate how the unfavorability of institutions of the countries from where products are sourced increases the likelihood of product failures. It proposes that international experience of the firm, supplier development initiatives, and the firm's strategic nature of sourcing all moderate the relationship between institutional constraints and product-quality failures.
