What goes around, comes around: Effects of offshore outsourcing on the export performance of firms

Olivier Bertrand
Additional contact information
Olivier Bertrand: [1] Graduate School of Management, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia[2] Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France

Journal of International Business Studies, 2011, vol. 42, issue 2, 334-344

Abstract: We examine the effect of offshore outsourcing on the export performance of firms. Building on the theories of international business, the resource-based view and transaction cost economics, we argue that offshore outsourcing helps firms – directly or indirectly – to export more. It may reduce their production costs and enhance their flexibility. It may also provide them with new resources and market knowledge. However, the impact of offshore outsourcing depends on the resources and capabilities of firms to manage a network of foreign suppliers, and to absorb foreign knowledge. Using a database of around 2000 manufacturing MNEs in France in 1999, we find that offshore outsourcing increases export performance, the effects being stronger in the export markets where firms import intermediate goods. We also show that the firm size, the organization of intra-firm imports and the export experience moderate the effects of offshore outsourcing positively. These findings have implications for firms and policymakers.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n2/pdf/jibs201026a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n2/full/jibs201026a.html Link to full text HTML (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:pal:jintbs:v:42:y:2011:i:2:p:334-344

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41267/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Business Studies is currently edited by John Cantwell

More articles in Journal of International Business Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Academy of International Business
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().