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Competence, Specificity and Outsourcing : Impact on the complexity of the contract

Author

Listed:
  • Jérôme Barthélemy

    (ESSEC Business School)

  • Bertrand Quélin

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

With the blurring of the corporation's traditional boundaries, new forms of contracting have progressively emerged. Outsourcing is one of the most prominent ones. This paper focus on outsourcing as an instance of vertical disintegration i.e. letting suppliers take over activities that were once undertaken in-house which has been far less researched than the classical 'Make or Buy' issue. Outsourcing as an instance of vertical disintegration is currently booming in service and support activities. Service outsourcing has recently moved beyond basic activities e.g., gardening, catering and cleaning to encompass more elaborate activities of the value chain e.g., information technology systems e.g., telecommunications, transportation, logistics, R&D.

Suggested Citation

  • Jérôme Barthélemy & Bertrand Quélin, 2002. "Competence, Specificity and Outsourcing : Impact on the complexity of the contract," Working Papers hal-00593655, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00593655
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. De Vita, Glauco & Tekaya, Arafet & Wang, Catherine L., 2010. "Asset specificity's impact on outsourcing relationship performance: A disaggregated analysis by buyer-supplier asset specificity dimensions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 657-666, July.
    2. Peters, Frank, 2018. "The business of video games is a multi-player game : Essays on governance choices and performance in a two-sided market in the cultural industries," Other publications TiSEM 886b3148-4bbb-4ea4-b666-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    outsourcing; transaction cost economics; resource-based view; contracts; partial least squares;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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