IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v16y2007i6p1147-1173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Business services outsourcing by manufacturing firms

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando Merino
  • Diego Rodríguez Rodríguez

Abstract

Outsourcing of services is one of the most important phenomena that are reshaping firms’ boundaries in the last decades. This article assesses the reasons leading manufacturing firms to contract out some service activities instead of providing them internally. The theoretical framework, inspired in transaction cost economics, emphasizes the effects that firm heterogeneity and service-specific decisions have on the decision to outsource. Our empirical analysis, using Spanish firm data, suggests the relevance of nonlineal effects related to firm size, wage differentials and location, among other factors, with clear differences among groups of services. Copyright 2007 , Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Merino & Diego Rodríguez Rodríguez, 2007. "Business services outsourcing by manufacturing firms," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(6), pages 1147-1173, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:16:y:2007:i:6:p:1147-1173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtm034
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Enderwick, Peter & Buckley, Peter J., 2019. "Beyond supply and assembly relations: Collaborative innovation in global factory systems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 547-556.
    2. Seeck, Hannele & Kantola, Anu, 2022. "The role of professional elites in shaping management practice: how the old mentalities condition the adoption of new management ideas," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118461, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Tregenna, F., 2009. "Contracting Out of Service Activities and the Effects on Sectoral Employment Patterns in South Africa," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0906, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Maryam Ghorbankhani & Federica Rossi, 2023. "Intrinsic and strategic complementarity of research and knowledge transfer activities as determinants of knowledge transfer management: evidence from public research organisations," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1386-1412, August.
    5. Koch, Andreas & Brändle, Tobias, 2013. "Outsourcing Potentials and International Tradability of Jobs. Evidence from German Micro-Level Data," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79727, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Bhimani, Alnoor & Lopes, Alexsandro & De Aquino, Andre Carlos Busanelli, 2017. "Measurement costs and control in outsourcing relationships," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68615, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Cristiano Antonelli & Francesco Crespi & Giuseppe Scellato, 2018. "Productivity growth persistence: firm strategies, size and system properties," Chapters, in: The Evolutionary Complexity of Endogenous Innovation, chapter 8, pages 176-202, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Roger Bandick, 2016. "Offshoring, Plant Survival and Employment Growth," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 597-620, May.
    9. Peter Daniels, 2010. "Services Innovation in a Globalized Economy," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Wennekers, Sander & van Stel, André & Carree, Martin & Thurik, Roy, 2010. "The Relationship between Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: Is It U-Shaped?," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 6(3), pages 167-237, July.
    11. Fu, Tong, 2020. "The dilemma of government intervention in a firm's financing: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    12. Bayo-Moriones, Alberto & Galdon-Sanchez, Jose Enrique & Gil, Ricard, 2013. "'Make-or-Buy' of Peripheral Services in Manufacturing: Evidence from Spanish Plant-Level Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7138, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Angels Pelegrín & José García-Quevedo, 2012. "Which firms are involved in foreign vertical integration?," Working Papers 2012/38, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    14. Ohnemus, Jörg, 2009. "Productivity effects of business process outsourcing: a firm-level investigation based on panel data," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Tobias Brändle & Andreas Koch, 2017. "Offshoring and Outsourcing Potentials: Evidence from German Micro-Level Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(9), pages 1775-1806, September.
    16. Holl, Adelheid, 2008. "Production subcontracting and location," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 299-309, May.
    17. Davide Antonioli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Sandro Montresor & Paolo Pini, 2015. "Outsourcing and Firm Productivity in a Specific Local Production System: Evidence from Reggio Emilia (Italy)," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 292-320, June.
    18. Angels Pelegrín & José García-Quevedo, 2012. "Which firms are involved in foreign vertical integration?," Working Papers 2012/38, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    19. Galdon-Sanchez, Jose Enrique & Gil, Ricard & Bayo-Moriones, Alberto, 2015. "Outsourcing of peripheral services: Evidence from Spanish manufacturing plant-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 328-344.
    20. Jos頃. Fari & Alberto L󰥺 & Ana Mart󻑍arcos, 2014. "Assessing the impact of domestic outsourcing and offshoring on productivity at the firm level," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(15), pages 1814-1828, May.
    21. Bürker, Matthias & Mammi, Irene & Minerva, G. Alfredo, 2021. "Civic capital and service outsourcing: Evidence from Italy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    22. Miroslava MILECOVÁ & Miroslav GRZNÁR & Ľuboslav SZABO, 2010. "Outsourcing: Decision making in case of outsourcing the company activity and management of outsourcing project," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 56(8), pages 387-396.
    23. Matthias Buerker & Gaetano Alfredo Minerva, 2013. "Civic Capital and the Vertical Integration of Service Provision: Evidence from Italy," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1209, European Regional Science Association.
    24. Roger Bandick, 2020. "Global sourcing, productivity and export intensity," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 615-643, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:indcch:v:16:y:2007:i:6:p:1147-1173. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    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.