This paper explores why competing firms can choose to outsource to an external common supplier that does not have a cost advantage in input production. The supplier, through its contract offers, manages to generate asymmetry, to alter product market competition, and to extract profits from the...

Can parties contract out of the general partnership form of business organization, even if their conduct would otherwise establish a partnership? Although a recent judicial decision suggests that they can, treating contractual disclaimers of partnership as dispositive is inconsistent with modern...

Outsourcing knowledge and innovation activities offer cost savings and superior performance, but can also put a firm’s unique resources and capabilities at risk. Characterizations of outsourcing as a make-or-buy decision do not fit well with decisions on knowledge process outsourcing (KPO)....

Casual observation suggests that cultural differences play an important role in business transactions, yet systematic evidence on this relationship is scarce. This paper provides a novel investigation of the effect of cultural distance on multinational firms' decisions to integrate their...

There is considerable debate over whether international trade has contributed to the declining economic fortunes of less skilled workers. One issue that has become lost in the current discussion is how firms respond to import competition and how these responses, in turn, are transmitted to the...

When should a government provide a service inhouse and when should it contract out provision? We develop a model in which the provider can invest in improving the quality of service or reducing cost. If contracts are incomplete, the private provider has a stronger incentive to engage in both...

Many economists studying America's wage divergence in the 1980's have concluded that its primary cause was a within-industry shift in relative labor demand toward the more-skilled. Following the modeling framework and empirical methods developed in Slaughter (1993), in this paper I try to...

Explaining patterns of asset ownership in the economy is a central goal of both organizational economics and industrial organization. We develop a model of asset ownership in trucking, which we test by examining how the adoption of different classes of on-board computers (OBCs) between 1987 and...

This paper studies how the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regime in destination countries influences the way multinationals structure the international organization of their production. In particular, we explore how multinationals divide tasks of different complexities across countries with...

In einer agilen und sich stetig weiterentwickelnden Umgebung sind Unternehmen gefordert, ihre Geschäftsprozesse und -modelle ständig zu hinterfragen, anzupassen und weiterzuentwickeln. Eine zentrale Überlegung in diesem Kontext stellt auch in der Veranstaltungsbranche die Frage nach der...

We consider a multi-item buyer's make versus buy decision. The buyer sells two substitutable products with uncertain demand. Each product requires a different item, which the buyer procures from two separate suppliers (one for each item) who offer quantity-payment contracts under asymmetric...

Purpose: Make-or-buy decisions represent a critical dilemma faced by many firms. The appropriate decision between designing and manufacturing parts or services in-house, buying them from external providers or combining both is a fundamental firm process. This paper seeks to address this question...

The application of cost assessment methods for the decision “make or buy” is very useful for the private enterprises and this can be traced by the published scientific experimental evidences about the future benefits. The subject, focused of the present research is to investigate whether it...

We present a real options model of a firm's make-or-buy decision under demand uncertainty. "Making" is subject to decreasing returns to scale, fixed costs and capital investment. "Buying" happens at a fixed price and requires no investment. Three distinct procurement regimes endogenously arise:...

About 40% of employment in manufacturing is in services functions. This paper develops a measure of narrow outsourcing, matching services functions performed by workers inside manufacturing firms to the same services functions provided by outside suppliers. Narrow outsourcing is entered into...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and goods-distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; that is, which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

Onsite-Werkverträge in der Warenverräumung gehen im Einzelhandel zuweilen mit gravierenden Problemen für den Auftraggeber einher. Trotzdem nimmt das Management diese Werkverträge nicht automatisch zurück. Es bedarf eines Akteurs wie des (Gesamt-)Betriebsrats, der die Rücknahme vorantreibt....

Remanufacturing is a sustainable practice as it can save resources and alleviate environmental pollution. However, the process of remanufacturing can be subject to yield uncertainty if the manufacturer is not sufficiently professional. In this paper, we consider a retailer selling both new and...

This paper examines factors explaining subcontracting decisions in the construction industry. Rather than the more common cross-sectional analyses, we use panel data to evaluate the influence of all relevant variables. We design and use a new index of the closeness to small numbers situations to...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

The role of innovation in improving productivity might vary according to a country's relative position in technology advancement. Frontier countries might benefit more from policies that promote firms' internal innovation (create), while follower countries would gain more from policies favoring...

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries; which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to...

Compared to large established firms, technology-based new firms (TBNF) seem well placed to produce breakthrough innovations although questions remain as to their adeptness at subsequent exploitation. Building on the innovation and strategy literatures, the study identifies two different...

This paper examines political lobbying and investigates firms' decisions regarding whether to employ internal functionalities (i.e., to “make” or insource), to contract with external professionals (i.e., to “buy” or outsource), or to do both (i.e., to “make and buy” or plural...

Although there is a growing body of research exploring the transition to a more service-based orientation in complex product markets, the majority of this literature adopts what mighty be classified as a ‘manufacturer-active’ point of view; that is it explores the challenges faced by firms...