Firms often procure the same input via multiple means, e.g., making and
buying. Recent papers have yielded rich, but inconsistent, theoretical and
empirical insights. Resolving these inconsistencies requires reconceptualizing
two aspects of plural sourcing: what and how. We reconceptualize plural
sourcing as a set of combined governance modes - make-and-buy, make-and-ally,
and buy-and-ally - which differ in their capabilities and limitations. We
demonstrate our reconceptualization's potential with propositions predicting
the choice of specific plural sourcing modes
