 Outsourcing and firm performance: evidence from Italian automotive suppliersGiuseppe Calabrese and Fabrizio Erbetta International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2005, vol. 5, issue 4, 461-479 Abstract: During the last decade a large number of firms operating in most industries have undertaken outsourcing processes. This tendency has involved, above all, automotive suppliers. The proposal of this paper is to investigate whether the outsourcing strategy has positively affected the overall performance of these firms. This has been observed by means of financial statements and under different viewpoints: growth, productivity, financial dependence and profitability. The findings point out that the relationship between outsourcing and performance does not follow a linear tendency. Furthermore, the firms always characterised by low integration or that deverticalised their productive structure over time have shown the highest growth, whereas firms with high integration level or that pursued a verticalisation strategy performed better in respect of profitability and debt ratio. Keywords: automotive suppliers; outsourcing; ratio analysis; automobile industry; Italy; organisational performance; firm performance; make-or-buy strategy; growth; productivity; financial dependence; profitability. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:5:y:2005:i:4:p:461-479 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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