IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v116y2012i3p593-596.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficient organization of production: Nested versus horizontal outsourcing

Author

Listed:
  • Shy, Oz
  • Stenbacka, Rune

Abstract

We characterize equilibrium and efficient modes of production by comparing nested (vertical) outsourcing with horizontal outsourcing. Nested outsourcing is found to be inefficient unless the cost of monitoring outsourced production lines increases sharply with the number of subcontractors and not only with the number of outsourced components. We characterize a market failure in which nested outsourcing is the market outcome even though horizontal outsourcing is the efficient outsourcing mode. This failure occurs at an intermediate range of the costs of monitoring outsourcing to several subcontractors.

Suggested Citation

  • Shy, Oz & Stenbacka, Rune, 2012. "Efficient organization of production: Nested versus horizontal outsourcing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 593-596.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:116:y:2012:i:3:p:593-596
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2012.06.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517651200331X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2012.06.009?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2005. "Partial outsourcing, monitoring cost, and market structure," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1173-1190, November.
    2. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    3. Legros, Patrick & Newman, Andrew F., 1996. "Wealth Effects, Distribution, and the Theory of Organization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 312-341, August.
    4. Chaim Fershtman & Ehud Kalai, 1993. "Complexity Considerations and Market Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(2), pages 224-235, Summer.
    5. Shy, Oz & Stenbacka, Rune, 2012. "Efficient organization of production: Nested versus horizontal outsourcing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 593-596.
    6. Anil Arya & Brian Mittendorf & David E. M. Sappington, 2008. "The Make-or-Buy Decision in the Presence of a Rival: Strategic Outsourcing to a Common Supplier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(10), pages 1747-1758, October.
    7. Nickerson, Jack A. & Vanden Bergh, Richard, 1999. "Economizing in a context of strategizing: governance mode choice in Cournot competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-15, September.
    8. Shy, Oz & Stenbacka, Rune, 2003. "Strategic outsourcing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 203-224, February.
    9. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2002. "Integration versus Outsourcing in Industry Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 85-120.
    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. Shy, Oz & Stenbacka, Rune, 2012. "Efficient organization of production: Nested versus horizontal outsourcing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 593-596.
    2. Manel Antelo & Lluís Bru, 2018. "Option Contracts in a Vertical Industry," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 86(4), pages 533-557, July.
    3. Rosar, Frank, 2017. "Strategic outsourcing and optimal procurement," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 91-130.

    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. Leahy, Dermot & Montagna, Catia, 2012. "Strategic investment and international outsourcing in unionised oligopoly," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 260-269.
    2. Kabiraj, Tarun & Sinha, Uday Bhanu, 2016. "Strategic outsourcing with technology transfer under price competition," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 281-290.
    3. Dermot Leahy & Catia Montagna, 2008. "Outsourcing Versus Fdi In Oligopoly Equilibrium," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 215, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    4. Dermot Leahy & Catia Montagna, 2006. "'Make-or-Buy' in International Oligopoly and the Role of Competitive Pressure," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 197, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    5. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2005. "Partial outsourcing, monitoring cost, and market structure," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(4), pages 1173-1190, November.
    6. Alvarez, Luis H.R. & Stenbacka, Rune, 2007. "Partial outsourcing: A real options perspective," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 91-102, February.
    7. Yoshinari Miyamoto, 2021. "Strategic outsourcing and quality choice: Is a vertical integration model sustainable?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 1332-1351, July.
    8. Conconi, Paola & Legros, Patrick & Newman, Andrew F., 2012. "Trade liberalization and organizational change," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 197-208.
    9. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Meland, Frode & Straume, Odd Rune, 2009. "Can deunionization lead to international outsourcing?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 109-119, February.
    10. Dermot Leahy & Catia Montagna, 2011. "Economising, Strategising and the Decision to Outsource," Discussion Papers 11/17, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    11. Prasun Bhattacharjee & Biswajit Mandal & Ravi Radhakrishnan, 2022. "Informal input sector and its impact on output market competitiveness," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 553-564, December.
    12. Xu, Su Xiu & Lu, Qiang & Huang, George Q. & Zhang, Ting, 2013. "Scope economies, market information, and make-or-buy decision under asymmetric information," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 339-348.
    13. Christian Ruzzier & Ricard Gil, 2015. "’Make or Buy’ as Competitive Strategy: Evidence from the Spanish Local TV Industry," Working Papers 119, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Feb 2015.
    14. Alexei Alexandrov, 2013. "Effects of Joint Outsourcing on Consumer Welfare," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 187-202, July.
    15. Justin Yifu Lin & Arijit Mukherjee & Yingyi Tsai, 2008. "Why do Firms Engage in Multi-sourcing?," Discussion Papers 08/43, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    16. Aghion, Philippe & Dewatripont, Mathias & Legros, Patrick & Zingales, Luigi (ed.), 2016. "The Impact of Incomplete Contracts on Economics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199826216, Decembrie.
    17. Cosimo Beverelli & Kornel Mahlstein, 2011. "Outsourcing and Competition Policy," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 131-147, June.
    18. Buehler, Stefan & Haucap, Justus, 2006. "Strategic outsourcing revisited," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 325-338, November.
    19. Bakaouka, Elpiniki & Milliou, Chrysovalantou, 2018. "Vertical licensing, input pricing, and entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 66-96.
    20. Cao, Jiyun & Mukherjee, Arijit & Sinha, Uday Bhanu, 2018. "Firm-asymmetry and strategic outsourcing," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 16-24.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Outsourcing; Subcontracting; Nested outsourcing; Horizontal outsourcing; Efficient organization of outsourcing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures

    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:eee:ecolet:v:116:y:2012:i:3:p:593-596. 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/ecolet .

    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.