The influence of competition on international sourcing strategies in the service sector

Rising importance of service industries and international trade in services led to increased competition in the service sector. The aim of this study is to analyze the international sourcing behavior of service firms as a strategic means to contend with competition. Our theoretical predictions suggest that there is a U-shaped relationship between a service firm’s domestic competitive position and its pursuit of international sourcing: the relationship is first negative and at later stages positive. The international sourcing behavior of domestic competitors and inward investments of foreign rivals are expected to positively affect a service firm’s international sourcing magnitude. A large-scale empirical analysis using a panel of 579 German service firms supports our hypotheses.     

Exploring the effects of international sourcing on manufacturing versus service firms

As the extent of international sourcing rises and the number of functional activities spreading across-national borders increases, there is a call for a better understanding of its impact on structural change. In this work, we explore the effects of international sourcing comparatively and look for differences between manufacturing and service firms. This study is based on a unique Slovenian data set that links the recently conducted Eurostats survey on international sourcing with a detailed financial firm-level data. The results from the matching methodology suggest that service firms involved in international sourcing gain an improvement in the quality and technological learning, resulting in the employment growth and development. This is not the case for manufacturing firms driven primarily by cost cutting. In our view, a better understanding of these effects is vital for both manufacturing as well as service firms that are influenced by this new trend.     

中国企业国际采购发展阶段特征的案例分析

随着中国企业国际化的发展,国际采购必将为中国企业国际竞争力的提高与可持续发展作出越来越重要的贡献。国际采购不仅是企业的运作职能,更是企业的战略职能。运作层次国际采购向战略层次国际采购的发展可以划分为不同阶段。本文采用案例研究方法对不同阶段中国企业国际采购的特征进行实证分析。研究结果表明,中国企业国际采购发展的初级阶段主要是追求海外供应的高质量和高技术,随着国际采购阶段的深入,中国企业国际采购能力建设将更为完善,将追求更为多样化的战略利益。中国企业国际采购所面临的硬性成本与外部障碍的重要性下降,软性成本和内部障碍越来越重要。对于国际采购发展程度较高的企业,内部障碍对企业国际采购能力建设提出了更高的要求。但软性成本的阶段性特征表现得不明显,文化与商业习惯差异是比较普遍的软性成本,其他软性成本类型主要与企业特征或行业类型有关。     

Ethical Sourcing: An Analysis of the Literature and Implications for Future Research

The purpose of this study is to present a rigorous, focused review on how this field of ethical sourcing research has grown and evolved over the decades, providing implications for future research. We combine two research methodologies in this study: a systematic literature review and a citation network analysis. The former is used as a scientific tool to select the most relevant ethical sourcing articles, while the latter is then applied as a research technique to analyse these selected articles. Such a combined approach allows for a rigorous investigation into this field of research in a more scientific and objective way. Based on this approach, we identify (1) distinctive features of ethical sourcing studies such as growth trends and content issues; (2) important articles that have played a significant role in developing this field; (3) evolutionary paths that show how its knowledge has been created and transferred; (4) emerging trends that have received growing attention in the recent literature; (5) main research areas that underlie the entire ethical sourcing studies; and (6) major implications that need to be pursued in future research. The results of this study provide not only the current status of the literature but also the patterns of evolution in this field of research, thus contributing to the existing literature.     

Supply Chain Management and Retailer Performance: Emerging Trends, Issues, and Implications for Research and Practice

In an environment with increasing competition and a growing need for operational efficiencies and customer orientation, retailers are looking beyond their organizational boundaries to develop and leverage the resources and capabilities of their supply chain partners to create superior value and competitive advantages in the marketplace. In this article, the authors discuss how three recent trends—global sourcing practices, multichannel routes to market, and relationship-based innovation—are transforming the retail landscape and leading to a variety of performance improvements with regard to brand image, reputation, sales and profits, innovation, and relationships. For each of these major trends, this article highlights key issues, identifies relevant literature, and offers propositions for further research.     

The Impact of Firm Capabilities and Competitive Advantages on Import Intermediary Performance

ABSTRACT

Import intermediary firms, domestic firms that serve U.S. industries by linking domestic wholesalers/retailers and foreign distributors/manufacturers, handled a whopping U.S. $1.85 trillion of commodity good imports in 2006. This study focused on these important firms by assessing the role of capabilities and competitive advantages as key determinants of import intermediary performance. The empirical results showed that market interpretation, sourcing, and service capabilities, overall, positively affected cost, product, and service competitive advantages. These competitive advantages, in turn, positively affected their relationship performance with business partners. Results, however, also indicated some interesting negative associations among sourcing capabilities, service advantages, and relationship performance with foreign partners, raising questions about extant firm performance theory.     

The influence of guanxi on physical distribution service quality availability in e-commerce sourcing fashion garments from China

The purpose was to investigate the influence of guanxi (personal relationships) on availability within physical distribution service quality (PDSQ) for sourcing high street fashion garments from China via e-commerce. The research reviewed articles on guanxi and although it is still widely considered important its contribution and nature appears to be changing as Chinese business practises and sourcing policy have matured over time. Qualitative research was used in two Chinese based case study companies with detailed access through semi structured face-to-face and telephone interviews. The findings suggest that personal relationships through guanxi can facilitate e-commerce availability of fashion product, particularly where there is limited lead time in the sourcing activity, although its form and application in each case study company and their respective supply network was not as widespread as had been previously reported. The form of guanxi was observed as personal relationships but some aspects of co-operative relationships were also found. Since the paper is based on a phenomenological ontology the findings are largely exploratory. Future research should focus on understanding physical distribution service quality and personal relationships in other sectors. Guanxi by definition is an unstructured array of socially-based relationships without a simplistic rationale or logic. By understanding how guanxi is applied in a supply chain management context will aid those practitioners involved in an e-commerce Chinese business practise.     

Learning How to Manage Technology in Services Internationalisation

Learning how to manage technology on foreign markets has become crucial for the competitive advantage of service firms. Not much has been written about how service firm learn to manage technology during internationalisation. This explorative study draws on verbatim accounts of critical incidents frorn key service employees in four Swedish service firms who recently started operations in Poland, Japan, Norway, Austria and Indonesia. Empirical evidence of learning and technical competercies presented in terms of a typology of competencies comprising: sourcing, developing, communicating, contracting and implementing technology.     

哈大齐工业走廊金融服务外包产业集聚区发展问题探析

随着国际服务外包市场的快速发展,未来哈大齐工业走廊金融服务外包市场具有强大的发展潜力。银行业应全方位支持服务外包产业发展,为服务外包企业拓展更多的直接融资途径。同时,要抓住有利时机,充分考虑服务外包产业特点和实际情况,配合优惠财税补贴政策。稳步有序地开展金融服务工作,努力通过金融支持,寻求自己新的盈利增长点。     

Investigating the formation of service supply chains

Existing research on service supply chains assumes the existence of an established and mature chain. Empirical or conceptual insights into service supply chain formation are therefore limited. The initial formation of a service supply chain, however, is suspected to determine its future performance. It is therefore of significant academic and managerial value to understand how and why service supply chains are formed, and how this process is coordinated. Drawing on an exploratory case study set in the management consulting industry, the inductive theory-building process underlying this study culminates in propositions and a conceptual model that provides a distinct understanding of service supply chain formation and the coordination mechanisms utilized within each stage. This study contributes to the service science, service supply chains, and service sourcing literatures; outlines managerial implications; and proposes future research directions.     

Service Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from the US

The practice of sourcing service inputs from overseas suppliers has been growing in response to new technologies that have made it possible to trade in some business and computing services that were previously considered non‐tradable. This paper estimates the effects of offshoring on productivity in US manufacturing industries between 1992 and 2000. It finds that service offshoring has a significant positive effect on productivity in the United States, accounting for around 10 per cent of labour productivity growth during this period. Offshoring material inputs also have a positive effect on productivity, but the magnitude is smaller accounting for approximately 5 per cent of productivity growth.     

Strategy and structure of service multinationals and their impact on linkages with local firms

Drawing on case studies of two leading UK service firms in five host countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea and Malaysia), we examine how the strategy and organization of service multinationals shape the development of linkages with local firms in host economies. We find that there is reduced autonomy of subsidiaries to engage with local firms as a result of relatively centralized strategies of multinationals. Because of global policies ensuring consistency of services or global sourcing policies to reduce costs, service multinationals tend to prefer global suppliers. Backward linkages occur in a few cases when the relationship can be a vehicle for market expansion for the multinational in a particular host market. Local governments play an important role in the cases where backward linkages are developed.     

Embedding Decision Support in E-Sourcing Tools: Quotes, A Case Study

In the everyday business world, the sourcing process of multiple goods and services usually involves complex negotiations that include discussion of product and service features. Currently, this is a high-cost process due to the scarce use of tools that streamline negotiations and assist purchasing managers' and providers' decision-making. With the advent of Internet-based technologies, it became feasible the idea of tools enabling low-cost, assisted, fluid, on-line dialogs between buyer enterprises and their providers located anywhere. This article presents Quotes, an iSOCO's commercial application that, in addition to cover the whole sequence of sourcing tasks, incorporates decision support facilities based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques that successfully address highly challenging issues in automated negotiation within a single and coherent framework.     

Open innovation and growth in IT sector

IT services are overrepresented among high-growth innovative enterprises. The nature of innovation in IT requires knowledge search and collaboration, which together constitute the inbound open innovation (IOI) strategy. This study analyses whether the IOI strategies in IT service firms lead to different performance effects in comparison to other service and manufacturing firms. A quantile regression on multi-country data from the Community Innovation Survey indicates that innovative IT service companies share the same benefits from increased cooperation as other innovators, while displaying a strong growth dynamic compared to others. Therefore, IT service firms’ growth differential may not be related to external cooperation and knowledge sourcing.     

The economics of partnership sourcing versus adversarial competition: a critique

In the strategic procurement management literature two general forms of purchasing arrangement feature—‘partnership sourcing’ and ‘competition’. Usually partnership sourcing is said to be superior because it leads to long-term collaboration based on trust between buyer and supplier. One product is a reduction of the supplier base with firms perhaps relying on a single source of supply or a small number of preferred suppliers. The paper reconsiders procurement methods in terms of a continuum using the economics of transaction costs. The paper then illustrates the economic issues discussed by considering procurement in the defence sector. Defence is taken as an example of public procurement with experience and opportunities for competition, partnership sourcing and long-term buyer-supplier relationships. The paper concludes that the case for partnership sourcing over competition is not clear cut.     

中国企业技术寻求型对外直接投资研究

本文以实证的方法检验了1990-2007年中国企业技术寻求型对外直接投资对国内技术进步的促进作用,结果显示:虽然1990-2007年从国外溢入中国的研发投入量总体是在增加的,但是中国企业技术寻求型FDI不仅没有对国内的全要素生产率形成正的促进作用,反而阻碍了中国全要素生产率的提高。由于目前中国开展技术寻求型对外直接投资仍处于初级阶段,我们不能因为其存在问题和不足就否定其对技术进步所带来的促进作用。     

Supply Relational Risk: What Role Does Guanxi Play?

The topics of supply chain risk and global sourcing have garnered significant attention in recent years. Although there is ample circumstantial evidence of global sourcing risk, especially from the western‐firm perspective of sourcing from China, few published studies have investigated the root causes of this risk. In this paper, we argue that much of the risk associated with sourcing from China stems from the differences associated with institutional norms and philosophical orientation between western and Chinese thought and culture. Based on an in‐depth literature review and case analysis, we compare western forms of supply chain relationship management with Guanxi, the Chinese form of relationship management and propose a framework of how western firms are exposed to supply relational risk when sourcing from Chinese suppliers. The framework proposed in this article sheds light for supply chain managers with regard to the potential pitfalls facing firms when working with Chinese suppliers, and provides the groundwork for future research regarding supply chain practices and Guanxi networks.     

External technology sourcing: The effect of uncertainty on governance mode choice

External knowledge sourcing is increasingly important for corporate entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine the effect of external and relational uncertainty on the governance choice for inter-organizational technology sourcing. We develop a number of hypotheses about the impact of environmental turbulence, technological newness, technological distance and prior cooperation on the choice between different governance modes. Data about external technology sourcing transactions in the pharmaceutical industry do not provide evidence for a continuum from less to more integrated sourcing modes. However, we find that the ranking depends on the type of uncertainty, indicating that firms tackle different types of uncertainty with different governance modes.     

Concurrent sourcing strategy of multinational firms in China: Drivers and performance implications

Concurrent sourcing is critical to multinational firms’ operations in emerging economies, such as China. Despite its prominence, research is lacking on the underlying conditions and performance implications of this strategy. We investigate the driving factors of multinational firms’ concurrent sourcing strategy and test whether concurrent sourcing outperforms other types of sourcing strategies. Our empirical findings suggest that multinational firms tend to choose concurrent sourcing under high levels of institutional regulations. Furthermore, the results show that concurrent sourcing generates better performance at high levels of uncertainties and the performance deficiency of concurrent sourcing can be mitigated when institutional regulations are high.     

钻石模型下提升合肥市服务外包业竞争力对策

发展服务外包产业是实现产业升级、扩大就业、转变经济增长方式,培育新的经济增长点的重要途径。利用修正的波特钻石模型分析合肥市服务外包业竞争力的影响因素,结果表明其弱点显著,最大的“软肋”是人力资源不足与产业集聚不强。因此,合肥市应采取加强投资软硬环境建设,扩大服务外包招商力度,培养适用性和高层次服务外包人才,培育扶持服务外包重点企业并形成产业集聚等措施来提升其服务外包业的竞争力。