IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v59y2022i3d10.1007_s11156-022-01071-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Outsourcing as a cooperative game between the CEO and labor: theory and evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Jongmoo Jay Choi

    (Temple University)

  • Ming Ju

    (Louisiana Tech University)

  • Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich

    (BrightQuery, Inc.)

  • Xiaotian Tina Zhang

    (Saint Mary’s College of California)

Abstract

We develop a model of a cooperative power game between a chief executive officer (CEO) and labor over a proposed corporate outsourcing, and test the model’s predictions concerning the decision to outsource, division of profits, and post-outsourcing firm performance using a sample of outsourcing deals by US firms. In accord with the model, we find that a firm is more likely to outsource when CEO power is greater, production costs are higher, and the industry is more homogeneous. Notably, we find that the outsourcing decision does not affect the CEO’s share of profits, and that CEO power is positively related to post-outsourcing performance. Additionally, poor prior firm performance moderates the power dynamics between the CEO and labor. These findings imply that labor can supplement traditional governance mechanisms and act as an effective managerial monitor when the firm undergoes a major restructuring.

Suggested Citation

  • Jongmoo Jay Choi & Ming Ju & Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich & Xiaotian Tina Zhang, 2022. "Outsourcing as a cooperative game between the CEO and labor: theory and evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1095-1131, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:59:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-022-01071-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-022-01071-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-022-01071-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-022-01071-x?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. Masaaki Kotabe & Janet Y Murray, 1990. "Linking Product and Process Innovations and Modes of International Sourcing in Global Competition: A Case of Foreign Multinational Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 21(3), pages 383-408, September.
    2. Seonghee Han & Vikram K. Nanda & Sabatino (Dino) Silveri, 2016. "CEO Power and Firm Performance under Pressure," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 45(2), pages 369-400, May.
    3. Kenneth M. Lehn & Mengxin Zhao, 2006. "CEO Turnover after Acquisitions: Are Bad Bidders Fired?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1759-1811, August.
    4. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda, 1991. "Union negotiations and corporate policy *1: A study of labor concessions in the domestic steel industry during the 1980s," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 3-43, November.
    5. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    6. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    7. Emily Breit & Xuehu (Jason) Song & Li Sun & Joseph Zhang, 2019. "CEO power and labor productivity," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(2), pages 148-165, July.
    8. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 32-42, January.
    9. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 1999. "The Impact of Outsourcing and High-Technology Capital on Wages: Estimates For the United States, 1979–1990," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 907-940.
    10. Richard B. Freeman & Morris M. Kleiner, 1999. "Do Unions Make Enterprises Insolvent?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(4), pages 510-527, July.
    11. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    12. John T. Addison, 2005. "The Determinants Of Firm Performance: Unions, Works Councils, And Employee Involvement/High‐Performance Work Practices," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(3), pages 406-450, July.
    13. Feenstra, Robert C & Hanson, Gordon H, 1996. "Globalization, Outsourcing, and Wage Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 240-245, May.
    14. Viral V. Acharya & Stewart C. Myers & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2011. "The Internal Governance of Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 689-720, June.
    15. Gregory Mankiw, N. & Swagel, Phillip, 2006. "The politics and economics of offshore outsourcing," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 1027-1056, July.
    16. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Paeglis, Imants, 2005. "Management quality, certification, and initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 331-368, May.
    17. Efraim Benmelech & Nittai K. Bergman & Ricardo J. Enriquez, 2012. "Negotiating with Labor under Financial Distress," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 28-67.
    18. Adair Morse & Vikram Nanda & Amit Seru, 2011. "Are Incentive Contracts Rigged by Powerful CEOs?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1779-1821, October.
    19. Michael Raith, 2003. "Competition, Risk, and Managerial Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1425-1436, September.
    20. Steven Tadelis & Oliver E.Williamson, 2012. "Transaction Cost Economics [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    21. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    22. Barry T. Hirsch, 2004. "What Do Unions Do for Economic Performance?," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(3), pages 415-456, July.
    23. Espen Eckbo, B. & Thorburn, Karin S., 2003. "Control benefits and CEO discipline in automatic bankruptcy auctions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 227-258, July.
    24. Barry T. Hirsch & David A. MacPherson, 2003. "Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(2), pages 349-354, January.
    25. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    26. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    27. John, Kose & Lang, Larry H P & Netter, Jeffry, 1992. "The Voluntary Restructuring of Large Firms in Response to Performance Decline," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 891-917, July.
    28. Barry T. Hirsch & Barbara A. Morgan, 1994. "Shareholder Risk and Returns in Union and Nonunion Firms," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(2), pages 302-318, January.
    29. Perotti, Enrico C & Spier, Kathryn E, 1993. "Capital Structure as a Bargaining Tool: The Role of Leverage in Contract Renegotiation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1131-1141, December.
    30. Rajesh K. Aggarwal & Andrew A. Samwick, 1999. "Executive Compensation, Strategic Competition, and Relative Performance Evaluation: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 1999-2043, December.
    31. David A. Matsa, 2010. "Capital Structure as a Strategic Variable: Evidence from Collective Bargaining," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1197-1232, June.
    32. Janet Y. Murray & Masaaki Kotabe, 1999. "Sourcing strategies of U.S. service companies: a modified transaction–cost analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(9), pages 791-809, September.
    33. Huang, Qianqian & Jiang, Feng & Lie, Erik & Que, Tingting, 2017. "The Effect of Labor Unions on CEO Compensation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 553-582, April.
    34. Julian Atanassov & E. Han Kim, 2009. "Labor and Corporate Governance: International Evidence from Restructuring Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 341-374, February.
    35. Bronars, Stephen G & Deere, Donald R, 1993. "Union Organizing Activity, Firm Growth, and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 203-220, March.
    36. Hermalin, Benjamin E & Weisbach, Michael S, 1998. "Endogenously Chosen Boards of Directors and Their Monitoring of the CEO," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 96-118, March.
    37. Hallock, Kevin F, 1998. "Layoffs, Top Executive Pay, and Firm Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 711-723, September.
    38. Patricia Pitcher & Samia Chreim & Veronika Kisfalvi, 2000. "CEO succession research: methodological bridges over troubled waters," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(6), pages 625-648, June.
    39. Ashwini K. Agrawal, 2012. "Corporate Governance Objectives of Labor Union Shareholders: Evidence from Proxy Voting," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(1), pages 187-226.
    40. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    41. Smith, Anne & Houghton, Susan M. & Hood, Jacqueline N. & Ryman, Joel A., 2006. "Power relationships among top managers: Does top management team power distribution matter for organizational performance?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 622-629, May.
    42. Blanchflower, David G & Millward, Neil & Oswald, Andrew J, 1991. "Unionism and Employment Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 815-834, July.
    43. Addison, John T & Hirsch, Barry T, 1989. "Union Effects on Productivity, Profits, and Growth: Has the Long Run Arrived?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(1), pages 72-105, January.
    44. Choi, Jongmoo Jay & Ju, Ming & Trigeorgis, Lenos & Zhang, Xiaotian Tina, 2021. "Outsourcing flexibility under financial constraints," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    45. Dwight W. Adamson & Scott W. Fausti, 2007. "A Nonmonopoly Theory of Union Wages and Hours Worked," Journal of Economic Insight, Missouri Valley Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-28.
    46. Catherine M. Daily & S. Trevis Certo & Dan R. Dalton, 2000. "International experience in the executive suite: the path to prosperity?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 515-523, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. James, Hui Liang & Borah, Nilakshi & Lirely, Roger, 2022. "The effectiveness of board independence in high-discretion firms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 103-117.
    3. Mark Humphery‐Jenner & Emdad Islam & Lubna Rahman & Jo‐Ann Suchard, 2022. "Powerful CEOs and Corporate Governance," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 135-188, March.
    4. Bristy, Humyra Jabeen & Han, Jianlei & Tian, Gary Gang, 2022. "CEO power and labor-friendly policy," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Li, Tongxia & Munir, Qaiser & Abd Karim, Mohd Rahimie, 2017. "Nonlinear relationship between CEO power and capital structure: Evidence from China's listed SMEs," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-21.
    6. Naeem Tabassum & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Organisational Performance," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-48527-6, December.
    7. Kathy Fogel & Liping Ma & Randall Morck, 2021. "Powerful independent directors," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 935-983, December.
    8. Bradley W. Benson & Wallace N. Davidson III & Hongxia Wang & Dan L. Worrell, 2011. "Deviations from Expected Stakeholder Management, Firm Value, and Corporate Governance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 39-81, March.
    9. Chenglong Zheng & Roy Kouwenberg, 2019. "A Bibliometric Review of Global Research on Corporate Governance and Board Attributes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-25, June.
    10. David A. Matsa, 2018. "Capital Structure and a Firm’s Workforce," NBER Working Papers 25125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. John Becker-Blease & Afshad Irani, 2008. "Do corporate governance attributes affect adverse selection costs? Evidence from seasoned equity offerings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 281-296, April.
    12. Leo Vashkor Dewri, 2022. "A Critical Assessment of Interrelationship Among Corporate Governance, Financial Performance, Refined Economic Value Added to Measure Firm Value and Return on Stock," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 2718-2759, December.
    13. E. Han Kim & Yao Lu, 2018. "Executive Suite Independence: Is It Related to Board Independence?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1015-1033, March.
    14. Hooy, Chee-Wooi & Ali, Ruhani, 2017. "Does a Muslim CEO matter in Shariah-compliant companies? Evidence from Malaysia," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 126-141.
    15. Wu, Zhenyu & Chua, Jess H. & Chrisman, James J., 2007. "Effects of family ownership and management on small business equity financing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 875-895, November.
    16. Guidi, Marco G.D. & Hillier, Joe & Tarbert, Heather, 2010. "Successfully reshaping the ownership relationship by reducing ‘moral debt’ and justly distributing residual claims: The cases from Scott Bader Commonwealth and the John Lewis Partnership," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 318-328.
    17. McKnight, Phillip J. & Weir, Charlie, 2009. "Agency costs, corporate governance mechanisms and ownership structure in large UK publicly quoted companies: A panel data analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 139-158, May.
    18. Ben Mohamed Ezzeddine & Sami Jarboui, 2017. "Do Corporate Governance Mechanisms Affect Public Transport Firm Value?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(3), pages 916-928, September.
    19. Xiaotao (Kelvin) Liu & Xiaoxia Liu & Colin D. Reid, 2019. "Stakeholder Orientations and Cost Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 486-512, March.
    20. Li, Donghui & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Pascal & Tan, Liwen, 2007. "Corporate governance or globalization: What determines CEO compensation in China?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 32-49, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Power play; CEO power; Labor bargaining; Outsourcing; Stakeholder model; Game theory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation

    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:kap:rqfnac:v:59:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11156-022-01071-x. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    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.