Productivity, relationship-specific inputs and the sourcing modes of multinationals

Fabrice Defever and Farid Toubal

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: We investigate the roles of productivity and the specificity of inputs for the international sourcing strategy of firms which are part of a multinational network. We present a framework in which firms decide to import from a foreign independent supplier or from their related party abroad according to these two dimensions. We use a detailed survey that provides a detailed geographical breakdown of French firms' imports at the product level as well as the sourcing mode used for each transaction. The dataset also provides information to estimate the firms' productivity and their intensity in relationship-specific inputs. After controlling for countries of origin, products and sectors specific effects, the empirical results provide evidence that for the most productive multinationals the likelihood of trading through an independent supplier is higher especially if they use relationship-specific inputs intensively.

Keywords: Productivity; Incomplete contracts; Intra-group trade; Outsourcing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2013, 94, pp.345-357. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2012.11.006⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Productivity, relationship-specific inputs and the sourcing modes of multinationals (2013)
Working Paper: Productivity, relationship-specific inputs and the sourcing modes of multinationals (2013)
Working Paper: Productivity, relationship-specific inputs and the sourcing modes of multinationals (2013)
Working Paper: Productivity, Relationship-Specific Inputs and the Sourcing Modes of Multinationals (2011)
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:hal:journl:hal-00860203

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2012.11.006

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().