Correspondence: William Foxx, Department of Marketing, Auburn University Montgomery, P.O. Box 244023, Montgomery, AL 36124-4023, USA

¹is an assistant professor of Marketing in the School of Business at Auburn University Montgomery. His research interests include outsourcing and online consumer behaviour.

²is an assistant professor of Business at the University of Montevallo. Her research interests include organizational buying and transportation research.

³is an undergraduate student at the University of Montevallo.

Received 27 October 2008; Revised 27 October 2008; Published online 4 January 2009.

Abstract

The outsourcing of healthcare services is expanding rapidly. As opportunities expand for vendors, a better understanding of the client's decision process and the concerns involved is needed so that vendors can better take advantage of these opportunities. A framework of service outsourcing decision-making is proposed as well as a set of outsourcing characteristics and resulting risks that are considered by firms outsourcing. A radar diagram is used to illustrate these relationships and then applied to two examples from the healthcare sector. This includes a discussion of how vendors might use the tool as an aid in developing sales and marketing strategies and tactics to win outsourcing contracts in the healthcare sector.