The emergence of the outsourcing market and product technological performance

This study is a novel empirical endeavor to analyze the impact of market demand and product technological performance on the growth of industry's outsourcing activities. Using the laptop computer industry as an example, this study examines the connection between the growth of outsourcing activities and product technological performance as well as market demand. The results suggest that, in addition to the relative efficiency assumed from transaction cost economies, the products' technological performance and market demand might also influence the growth of industry's outsourcing activities.     

基于延伸售后保证的第三方物流运作模式

提出将延伸售后服务保证外包于第三方物流,并构建了最优化模型。发现:在延伸售后服务市场中,应根据消费者价值采取不同的延伸售后保证策略;对制造商和第三方物流服务提供商的成本进行对比的结果表明,将延伸售后保证服务外包给第三方物流服务提供商可有效降低制造商的成本,同时可增强第三方物流服务提供商的综合竞争能力。最后探讨了延伸售后保证外包于第三方物流服务提供商的运作模式。     

How and where to offshore: a productivity comparison at the firm level

Using recent survey data on South Korean firms’ strategies for sourcing intermediate goods from abroad, we investigate whether there exists a productivity premium of offshoring by considering organizational forms (insourcing versus outsourcing) and the income level of offshored countries (North versus South) altogether. Thus, we consider the following four offshoring types: outsourcing from South, insourcing from South, outsourcing from North and insourcing from North. Unlike previous studies, we give particular attention to the comparison between outsourcing from North and insourcing from South and find that firms outsourcing from North are more productive than firms sourcing from their own affiliates in South. We offer three critical conditions to incorporate our empirical findings into the standard firm heterogeneity model: the fixed cost is higher for insourcing than for outsourcing and is higher in North than in South, the headquarters receive a larger share of the final revenue through insourcing than through outsourcing, and sourcing from North guarantees better profitability (or a bigger share) in the market for the headquarters than sourcing from South. Thus, this article contributes to the literature by identifying a new productivity order.     

To outsource or not to outsource in an integrated world

This paper investigates outsourcing decision under certainty and uncertainty. When the production activity can be fragmented into two or more processes, an integrated firm must be competitive in each of the fragmented processes. There are gains from outsourcing when factor prices differ between countries. When factor prices are not equalized internationally, a firm may outsource the process which uses its scarce source intensively. If the cost of outsourcing is lower in the foreign country, full outsourcing occurs under certainty. However, even if the outside supplier has a cost advantage, uncertainty in outsourcing cost ensures that partial outsourcing is optimal for risk-averse firms.     

乡村外包对江苏服务外包产业影响研究

金融危机与欧债危机的双重背景下,美国服务外包领域的乡村外包作为一种新兴产业新模式,正受到业界高度重视。专家预测,随着乡村外包模式的逐渐成熟,美国极有可能将在亚洲的离岸外包业务转变成乡村外包模式发包。文章在对离岸外包企业进行调查问卷、深度访谈与参看内部资料的基础上,借助扎根理论研究乡村外包模式对江苏省服务外包产业的可能性影响,经过开放性编码、关联性编码与核心性编码分析总结出8个结论,构建了一个包括3个一级指标、6个二级指标、12个三级指标的有效应对乡村外包的竞争力体系。研究结果表明,乡村外包模式降低了美国接发包企业的成本、国际市场风险、汇率风险与国际法律纠纷风险等,也符合美国政府刺激经济复苏、呼吁提高就业率的号召。江苏省承接离岸外包的企业必须采取积极措施加以应对。     

Competition and the location of overseas assembly

Abstract. How does international competition affect overseas outsourcing? To address this question, this paper studies production decisions in the U.S.'s overseas assembly program (OAP). In this setting, a number of regularities emerge. First, prior participation is highly correlated with current participation, which suggests that sunk costs influence outsourcing choices. Second, increases in own‐country costs and declines in competitor‐country costs reduce participation probabilities. In addition, these persistence and cost effects are much larger for outsourcing in developing countries. Finally, outsourcing responses appear to reflect differences in 'market thickness,’ as cost sensitivity generally rises with competitor presence.     

进入权、声誉与服务外包组织治理——一个非对称信息的不完全契约模型

服务外包作为一种介于市场和企业之间的中间组织形态,在人力资本密集型的服务交易治理中有其独到的优势。本文基于进入权和声誉两种治理机制,从静态和动态两个层面为服务外包组织治理搭建了一个框架模型。在静态模型中,通过对市场、外包和企业三种组织的比较制度分析得出,虽然三种组织形式都不可能达到社会最优的专用性人力资本投资激励水平,但基于进入权治理的服务外包组织可以得到次优的激励效果。在动态模型中,通过引入不对称信息和声誉机制,证明了在长期合作条件下,服务外包组织可获得社会最优的专用性人力资本投资激励水平。     

Skilled–unskilled wage inequality and offshore outsourcing with asymmetric adjustment costs

We present a model that can capture the effects of offshore outsourcing on the wedge between the wages of skilled and unskilled workers when costs of adjustment are asymmetric. We identify conditions under which offshore outsourcing activities widen the skilled–unskilled wage inequality in the presence of asymmetric adjustment costs. We show how a higher cost of adjustment in the import-competing sector can magnify the offshore outsourcing induced gap between the wages of the skilled and unskilled workers. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of the effects of offshore outsourcing, on the skilled–unskilled wage gap, to asymmetries in the costs of adjustment.     

THE BENEFIT OF REDUCED COMPETITION AND THE COST OF INFORMATION RENT UNDER OUTSOURCING

We analyse the cost and benefit of outsourcing with adverse selection in a duopoly by comparing outsourcing with in‐house production in terms of the manufacturer’s expected profit. When two manufacturers faced with ex ante cost uncertainty compete in a differentiated duopoly, outsourcing brings about a benefit in terms of reduced competition, while it entails the cost of information rent. We show that the manufacturers always choose in‐house production in Cournot and Bertrand competition, when outsourcing and in‐house production follow the same ex ante cost distribution. When the manufacturers compete in Cournot fashion, the cost of information rent always exceeds the benefit of reduced competition under outsourcing. On the other hand, when they compete in Bertrand fashion, it is possible that even if the benefit of outsourcing exceeds the cost, both manufacturers cannot choose outsourcing.     

Regulation,Local Monopolies and Spatial Competition

Many regulated industries involve an oligopoly market structure. We examine optimal incentive regulation for a duopoly model of spatial competition when firms have private cost information. Market structure is endogenous as regulation determines market segments for firms and output distribution across consumers in each firm's market. By varying the assignment of consumers to firms, a relatively more efficient firm can be rewarded with a larger market, thus reducing quantity incentive distortions. We derive the optimal policy, assess the impact of asymmetric information relative to full information, and examine extensions to allow for ex ante asymmetries in firm structure.     

Market thickness,sunk costs,productivity, and the outsourcing decision: an empirical analysis of manufacturing firms in France

Abstract This paper presents an empirical analysis of outsourcing behaviour by French manufacturing industries. It focuses on the effects of market thickness, sunk costs, and the productivity of firms on the outsourcing decision. I estimate a dynamic probit model where outsourcing decision is linked to past outsourcing behaviour. The results show that outsourcing is a persistent strategy adopted by large firms and suggest the presence of significant sunk costs associated with outsourcing. The results also show that market thickness reduces search costs and enhances the establishment of outsourcing relationships.     

International Outsourcing and Unemployment in a Minimum‐wage Economy

To explore the impact of international outsourcing on unemployment and social welfare, the conventional trade model is extended by including both economies of scale and a minimum‐wage constraint in the unskilled‐labor market. In the paper, the scale economies are linked with the production of the most skill‐intensive good. It is shown that within such a framework, there is a trade‐off between a more socially desirable endowment allocation and a greater level of employment. Therefore, even though outsourcing could raise aggregate employment, this benefit is at the cost of further exacerbating the resource misallocation. In this way, the extensions to the traditional framework explored in the paper generate new insights as to why outsourcing may cause a net welfare loss to the home country.     

Political preferences and public sector outsourcing

Given the intensive and ideologically charged debate over the use of private contractors for publicly funded services, it is somewhat surprising that many social scientists have preferred to explain government outsourcing by the pursuit of economic efficiency. Starting out from different theories, we investigate political explanations of government outsourcing using a Swedish data set in which outsourcing varies between municipalities and over time, as well as between services. Our identification strategy focuses on two services with similar contracting problems and local market conditions: preschools and primary schools. We study a period in which Swedish municipalities had full discretion in the provision of preschools, while their influence on the private provision of primary education was limited by a national voucher system. The comparison of preschools with primary schools in a difference-in-differences model suggests that the political color of the ruling majority influences outsourcing, which is consistent with the Citizen Candidate model of representative democracy.     

企业研发外包中的交易效率与决策模型研究

继制造业全球重组和转移之后,以信息技术外包和业务流程外包等服务外包为代表的服务业转移蓬勃发展,已成为不可逆转的新一轮全球产业革命和产业转移趋势,而研发外包是目前外包领域中新兴的形式。以往的研究认为,研发活动是企业的核心流程,外包的市场交易费用高,传统交易费用理论难以解释研发外包的发展。以交易成本理论为基础,借助新兴古典经济学的分析方法,从理论上分析研发外包活动存在的合理性,指出网络信息技术有效提高研发活动交易效率是决定企业外包决策的重要因素。     

国际外包影响因素的实证研究——基于测算方法的差异

运用3种方法测算了2002年和2007年中国35个工业行业整体及分类的物质外包率和服务外包率,比较不同类型工业行业的不同国际外包率指标的差异,并实证研究了中国工业行业国际外包的影响因素。研究结果表明:利用不同测算方法得出的国际外包率存在明显差异,但中国资本技术密集型工业行业的国际外包率远高于资源密集型、资本密集型和劳动密集型的工业行业;行业物质外包率受工资成本、市场竞争压力、外资比重和出口开放度的影响较大,行业物质外包率随着行业平均工资的提高、市场竞争压力的增加、外资比例的提高和出口开放度的提高而增大;行业服务外包水平会随着工资成本的增加、规模经济的增强而提高,随着垄断势力的增强和外资比重的提高而降低。     

Partial outsourcing, monitoring cost, and market structure

Abstract.  We investigate firms' outsourcing decisions when production requires a large number of inputs. The novelty of our approach is that it provides a testable framework to characterize the equilibrium fraction of outsourced inputs. We demonstrate that intensified competition in a Cournot market for the final good typically enlarges the set of outsourced components relative to those produced in‐house. The proportions of outsourced inputs are found to be strategic substitutes independently of whether firms compete with respect to quantities or prices in the market for the final good. JEL classification: D20, L22     

Outsourcing and the Heckscher–Ohlin Model

The purpose of this paper is to incorporate the currently mushrooming phenomenon of outsourcing into the standard two‐sector, two‐factor Heckscher–Ohlin model of international trade. We first show how outsourcing modifies a firm's production function, and then demonstrate that outsourcing generally raises the return to capital and lowers the real wage, although the nation's GDP rises in proportion to the value‐added in the outsourcing industry. Furthermore, the output of the outsourcing sector may actually fall even though its unit cost goes down; the output of the other sector then rises. By contrast, employment in the outsourcing sector may actually rise.     

A North–South model of outsourcing and growth

In this paper, I formulate a simple North–South R&D‐based growth model where final goods firms in the North endogenously determine the range of international outsourcing of intermediate goods to the South. I show that a fall in the trade cost (through trade liberalization) of intermediate goods in the North: (i) reduces the wage of the North relative to that of the South; (ii) increases the outsourced variety of intermediate goods in the North; and (iii) stimulates Northern R&D activity and economic growth in both countries. By conducting welfare analysis, I also show that a decline in the trade cost of intermediate goods in the North improves welfare in the South more than in the North.     

Technological change and the vertical organization of industries

The vertical scope of a firm, that is, which components or segments of the production processes are kept in–house and which are outsourced, is variously considered as depending on cost and/or technological conditions. Most of the literature focuses on the incentives for an individual firm facing exogenous competition and technological opportunities. In this paper we consider the problem from the perspective of the whole industry: in what respect does firm organizational behavior depend on the industry technological evolution and aggregate structure, and how does innovation and organizational behavior affect the industry structure. We build an evolutionary simulation model of an industry where competitors decide the number of internally produced components. We relate the industry average value of market outsourcing to the technological conditions prevalent in the industry. The results from the model shed light on a number of (apparently) contradictory suggestions in the economic and management literature.     

HR外包服务商在劳动关系中的功能研究

激烈的产品市场竞争和波动性的劳动力市场供求关系,推动着企业在不断调整其人力资源获取和管理中的制度选择。HR外包服务商为企业降低用工成本,提升组织柔性提供了必要的外部支持[1]。本研究分析了具有不同组织特征的HR外包服务商对客户企业内部劳动关系的影响作用,同时比较了外包商与工会和企业的HR部门在劳动关系中的功能差异;其研究结论反映了HR外包商在企业劳动关系发展中的功能定位,从而为人才外包服务产业的可持续发展指出了方向。