Organisational design alternatives within international operations networks: a transaction cost perspective

Michel Leseure

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2010, vol. 7, issue 4, 419-439

Abstract: This paper shows, through multiple case studies of Moroccan textile apparel offshore factories, that one organisational design does not fit all within international operations networks. Whereas previous research about managing networks of foreign factories has focused on fully owned production affiliates, a considerable diversity of organisational arrangements is shown to exist. Analysed in the light of transaction cost theory, this diversity suggests that the cost of coordination of foreign factories operating in culturally different countries is high, and has possibly been overlooked in international operations management research. As this paper is primarily a piece of exploratory research, its aim is to document the hybrid arrangements, between markets and hierarchies, that are used by multinationals to cope with coordination costs in practice. Moreover, the potential of 'supply chain outposts', as an organisational innovation used to cope with high coordination requirements, is highlighted.

Keywords: international operations networks; transaction costs; Morocco; textile industry; apparel manufacturing; offshore factories; organisational design; foreign factories; production affiliates; ownership; coordination costs; cultural differences; management research; hybrid arrangements; markets; hierarchies; multinational corporations; MNCs; SCM; supply chain management; outposts; organisational innovation; clothing industry; garment industry. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=35706 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijsoma:v:7:y:2010:i:4:p:419-439

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Services and Operations Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().