It was reported that Exabyte Corporation, a fast growing Colorado marketer of backup tape drives, has decided to purchase key components of its product from others. For example, Sony Corporation of America provides Exabyte with mechanical decks, and Solectron Corporation provides circuit boards. A former chief executive officer of Exabyte stated, “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?