The General Profile of the Outsourcing Firm Evidence for a Local Production System of Emilia Romagna

Massimiliano Mazzanti, Sandro Montresor () and Paolo Pini

No 06-20, DRUID Working Papers from DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies

Abstract: The paper aims at ‘embedding’ the outsourcing firm by considering it as a four-fold unit of analysis: i.e. as an organizational, production, industrial and innovation unit. Theoretical correlations between outsourcing decisions and outsourcing variables are formulated and then tested with respect to a representative cross-sectional sample of firms of a local production system in Emilia Romagna (that is, Reggio Emilia). The main result of the paper is that outsourcing decisions are indeed affected by the organizational and industrial relations typical of the context firms are embedded in. Furthermore, the general profile of the Reggio Emilia outsourcing firm is strategic rather than operative. In particular, tapping-into the provider’s resources and competences to eventually promote technological innovation seems more relevant than searching for lower costs by contracting out.

Keywords: Outsourcing; transaction costs; industrial relations; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 J53 L22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Chapter: The General Profile of the Outsourcing Firm: Evidence for a Local Production System of Emilia Romagna (2009)
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