IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v103y2019icp570-580.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The choice of offshoring operation mode: A behavioural perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Pla-Barber, José
  • Linares, Esmeralda
  • Ghauri, Pervez N.

Abstract

Since offshoring has recently become an integral part of corporate strategies, choosing the specific offshoring operation mode is a crucial aspect for CEOs. Using a sample of 466 offshoring operations, this study analyses offshoring mode decisions from the rationale of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Drawing on this perspective, our results indicate that this decision seems to be clearly influenced by the manager's intentions and partially determined by some competences originated in the resources and experience of the firm. Additionally, and contrary to the common view in the field, our findings suggest that instead of being a possible intermediate option between the “make or buy” decision, concurrent offshoring can in fact constitute a final state in the evolution of MNE strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Pla-Barber, José & Linares, Esmeralda & Ghauri, Pervez N., 2019. "The choice of offshoring operation mode: A behavioural perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 570-580.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:570-580
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.02.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318301164
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.02.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Wiklund & Dean Shepherd, 2003. "Aspiring for, and Achieving Growth: The Moderating Role of Resources and Opportunities," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1919-1941, December.
    2. Ilan Oshri & Julia Kotlarsky & Leslie P. Willcocks, 2009. "The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-25107-6.
    3. Hartmut Egger & Udo Kreickemeier & Jens Wrona, 2017. "Offshoring Domestic Jobs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Trade and Labor Markets Welfare, Inequality and Unemployment, chapter 2, pages 27-70, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    5. Kolvereid, Lars & Isaksen, Espen, 2006. "New business start-up and subsequent entry into self-employment," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 866-885, November.
    6. Hartmut Egger & Peter Egger, 2006. "International Outsourcing and the Productivity of Low-Skilled Labor in the EU," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(1), pages 98-108, January.
    7. Peter J Buckley & Pervez N Ghauri, 2004. "Globalisation, economic geography and the strategy of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(3), pages 255-255, May.
    8. Alicia Rodríguez & María Jesús Nieto, 2016. "Does R&D offshoring lead to SME growth? Different governance modes and the mediating role of innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1734-1753, August.
    9. Yip, George & Dempster, Anna, 2005. "Using the Internet to Enhance Global Strategy," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-13, February.
    10. Klaus E. Meyer & Mike Wright & Sarika Pruthi, 2009. "Managing knowledge in foreign entry strategies: a resource‐based analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 557-574, May.
    11. Alfred M. Jaeger & B. R. Baliga, 1985. "Control systems and strategic adaptation: Lessons from the Japanese experience," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 115-134, April.
    12. Anne Parmigiani, 2007. "Why do firms both make and buy? An investigation of concurrent sourcing," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 285-311, March.
    13. Peter Maskell & Torben Pedersen & Bent Petersen & Jens Dick-Nielsen, 2007. "Learning Paths to Offshore Outsourcing: From Cost Reduction to Knowledge Seeking," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 239-257.
    14. Lutz Sommer, 2010. "Internationalization processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises—a matter of attitude?," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 288-317, September.
    15. Musteen, Martina, 2016. "Behavioral factors in offshoring decisions: A qualitative analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3439-3446.
    16. Sea-Jin Chang & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "From the Editors: Common method variance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 178-184, February.
    17. Sheshinski, Eytan & Dreze, Jacques H, 1976. "Demand Fluctuations, Capacity Utilization, and Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 731-742, December.
    18. Vernon, Raymond, 1979. "The Product Cycle Hypothesis in a New International Environment," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 41(4), pages 255-267, November.
    19. Hutzschenreuter, Thomas & Lewin, Arie Y. & Dresel, Stephan, 2011. "Governance modes for offshoring activities: A comparison of US and German firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 291-313, June.
    20. Calof, Jonathan L. & Beamish, Paul W., 1995. "Adapting to foreign markets: Explaining internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-131, June.
    21. Thomas Hutzschenreuter & Torben Pedersen & Henk W Volberda, 2007. "The role of path dependency and managerial intentionality: a perspective on international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(7), pages 1055-1068, December.
    22. Farok J. Contractor & Vikas Kumar & Sumit K. Kundu & Torben Pedersen, 2010. "Reconceptualizing the Firm in a World of Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High-Value Company Functions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(s2), pages 1417-1433, December.
    23. Ram Mudambi & Markus Venzin, 2010. "The Strategic Nexus of Offshoring and Outsourcing Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1510-1533, December.
    24. Roza, Marja & Van den Bosch, Frans A.J. & Volberda, Henk W., 2011. "Offshoring strategy: Motives, functions, locations, and governance modes of small, medium-sized and large firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 314-323, June.
    25. Karsten Bjerring Olsen, 2006. "Productivity Impacts of Offshoring and Outsourcing: A Review," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2006/1, OECD Publishing.
    26. Morgan, Robert E. & Katsikeas, Constantine S., 1997. "Export stimuli: Export intention compared with export activity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(5), pages 477-499, October.
    27. Daniel A. Levinthal & James G. March, 1993. "The myopia of learning," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S2), pages 95-112, December.
    28. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazzura & Rajneesh Narula, 2015. "A Set of Motives to Unite Them All? Revisiting the Principles and Typology of MNE Motives," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2015-03, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    29. Peter J Buckley & Pervez N Ghauri, 2004. "Globalisation, economic geography and the strategy of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(2), pages 81-98, March.
    30. David L. Levy, 2005. "Offshoring in the New Global Political Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 685-693, May.
    31. Andrea Masini & Zeinep Aksin Karaesman, 2008. "Effective strategies for internal outsourcing and offshoring of business services: An empirical investigation," Post-Print hal-00516139, HAL.
    32. Lewin, Arie Y. & Volberda, Henk W., 2011. "Co-evolution of global sourcing: The need to understand the underlying mechanisms of firm-decisions to offshore," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 241-251, June.
    33. Farok J. Contractor & Vikas Kumar & Sumit K. Kundu & Torben Pedersen, 2010. "Reconceptualizing the Firm in a World of Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High‐Value Company Functions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1417-1433, December.
    34. Belén González-Díaz & Rosario Gandoy, 2016. "Offshoring and employment structure in the EU periphery: the case of Spain," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(14), pages 1255-1270, March.
    35. Anne Parmigiani & Will Mitchell, 2009. "Complementarity, capabilities, and the boundaries of the firm: the impact of within‐firm and interfirm expertise on concurrent sourcing of complementary components," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(10), pages 1065-1091, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Kumar, Satish & Pandey, Nitesh & Lahiri, Somnath, 2023. "Is offshoring dead? A multidisciplinary review and future directions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niccolò Pisani & Joan Enric Ricart, 2016. "Offshoring of Services: A Review of the Literature and Organizing Framework," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 385-424, June.
    2. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Kumar, Satish & Pandey, Nitesh & Lahiri, Somnath, 2023. "Is offshoring dead? A multidisciplinary review and future directions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    3. Rodgers, Peter & Khan, Zaheer & Tarba, Shlomo & Nurgabdeshov, Assylbek & Ahammad, Mohammad F., 2019. "Exploring the determinants of location choice decisions of offshored R&D projects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 472-483.
    4. Yi-Ju Lo & Tung Hung, 2015. "Structure offshoring and returns on offshoring," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 443-479, June.
    5. Caniato, Federico & Elia, Stefano & Luzzini, Davide & Piscitello, Lucia & Ronchi, Stefano, 2015. "Location drivers, governance model and performance in service offshoring," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 189-199.
    6. Fuster, Begoña & Lillo-Bañuls, Adelaida & Martínez-Mora, Carmen, 2020. "Reshoring of services and employment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 233-246.
    7. Gooris, Julien & Peeters, Carine, 2014. "Home–Host Country Distance in Offshore Governance Choices," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 73-86.
    8. Nidthida Lin, 2020. "Designing Global Sourcing Strategy for Cost Savings and Innovation: A Configurational Approach," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 723-753, October.
    9. Schmeisser, Bjoern, 2013. "A Systematic Review of Literature on Offshoring of Value Chain Activities," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 390-406.
    10. Julien Gooris & Carine Peeters, 2012. "Home-Host Country Distance and Governance Choices in Service Offshoring," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2012-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Martinez-Noya, Andrea & Narula, Rajneesh, 2018. "What more can we learn from R&D alliances? : A review and research agenda," MERIT Working Papers 2018-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Schubert, Torben & Baier, Elisabeth & Rammer, Christian, 2016. "Technological capabilities, technological dynamism and innovation offshoring," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-044, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Julien Gooris & Carine Peeters, 2014. "Fragmenting global business processes: A protection for proprietary information," Working Papers 2014-12, CEPII research center.
    14. Angels Pelegrín & Catalina Bolancé, 2011. "Offshoring and company characteristics: some evidence from the analysis of Spanish firm data," Working Papers 2011/16, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    15. Martinez-Noya, Andrea & Garcia-Canal, Esteban & Guillen, Mauro F., 2012. "International R&D service outsourcing by technology-intensive firms: Whether and where?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 18-37.
    16. Larsen, Marcus M., 2016. "Failing to estimate the costs of offshoring: A study on process performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 307-318.
    17. Driffield, Nigel & Pereira, Vijay & Temouri, Yama, 2019. "Does offshore outsourcing impact home employment? Evidence from service multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 448-459.
    18. Jensen, Peter D. Ørberg, 2012. "A passage to India: A dual case study of activities, processes and resources in offshore outsourcing of advanced services," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 311-326.
    19. Torben Schubert & Elisabeth Baier & Christian Rammer, 2018. "Firm capabilities, technological dynamism and the internationalisation of innovation: A behavioural approach," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(1), pages 70-95, January.
    20. Lewin, Arie Y. & Volberda, Henk W., 2011. "Co-evolution of global sourcing: The need to understand the underlying mechanisms of firm-decisions to offshore," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 241-251, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:570-580. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.