In this paper, we argue that capabilities serve as shift parameters that result in a change in the critical value of asset specificity at which firms switch from in-sourcing to outsourcing. Capabilities have two effects: they result in a change in firm production costs and in firm governance...

The current paper explores the use of the Resource-Based View in the analysis of the firm boundary decision. It is proposed that resources that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable are those that have the least likelihood of being outsourced. This proposition is tested...