The Management of Subcontracted Networks as an Alternative to Internalisation: The Shift from the Standardised to the Specialised in Frozen and Chilled Foods
This paper is to highlight the management of subcontracted networks as an alternative to internalisation. The contrasting examples of the frozen food sector and the chilled ready meals sector are employed to examine the different economic relationships. The paper draws upon transaction costs economics, interdisciplinary literature from organisation studies, network theory, and sociology to contextualise the functioning of network relationships. The paper examines the shift in the role of the firm from producer, to the firm as co-ordinator of information flows. In contrast to the vertically integrated frozen food sector, the chilled food industry manifests plural organisational forms, with close-knit trust based inter-organisational networks and arms-length subcontracting.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Length: 30 pages Date of creation: 1999 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:sbu:cibswp:16-99
Contact details of provider: Postal: London South Bank University Business School 103 Borough Road London SE1 0AA United Kingdom Phone: +44 171 815 7731 Fax: +44 171 815 7076 Web page: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/cibs More information through EDIRC