It was recently reported that Exabyte, a fast growing (100-fold in four years) Colorado marketer of tape drives, has decided to purchase key components of its product from others. For example, Sony provides Exabyte with mechanical decks, and Solectron provides circuit boards. Exabyte's chief executive officer, Peter Behrendt.

states, "If we'd tried to build our own plants, we could never have grown that fast or maybe survived." The decision to purchase key product components is an example of what type of decision illustrated in this chapter?

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