IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v103y2019icp484-494.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Offshore outsourcing and firm performance: Moderating effects of size, growth and slack resources

Author

Listed:
  • Munjal, Surender
  • Requejo, Ignacio
  • Kundu, Sumit K.

Abstract

This study explores the impact of foreign technology and professional services from outsourcing on firm financial performance. To this aim, we use a sample of 1710 Indian firms over a time period of 13 years, from 2001 to 2013. The empirical evidence obtained shows that the positive effects of technological knowledge and professional services on performance are moderated by firm size, business growth and slack resources. In particular, the benefits of outsourcing in terms of higher profitability are more pronounced for small than for large firms, especially when small firms have higher growth rates and financial slack. The work contributes to the resource based view and the internalization theory of the firm. Our results suggest that firms from an emerging country such as India may have alternative motives for offshore outsourcing different from the reasons of firms from advanced economies. Several managerial implications are also derived from our findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Munjal, Surender & Requejo, Ignacio & Kundu, Sumit K., 2019. "Offshore outsourcing and firm performance: Moderating effects of size, growth and slack resources," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 484-494.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:484-494
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318300146
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parida, Vinit & Wincent, Joakim & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2016. "Transaction costs theory and coordinated safeguards investment in R&D offshoring," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1823-1828.
    2. Kedia, Ben L. & Mukherjee, Debmalya, 2009. "Understanding offshoring: A research framework based on disintegration, location and externalization advantages," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 250-261, July.
    3. Kiyohiko Ito & Elizabeth L Rose, 2002. "Foreign Direct Investment Location Strategies in the Tire Industry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 593-602, September.
    4. Peter J. Buckley, 2011. "International Integration and Coordination in the Global Factory," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 269-283, April.
    5. Isakov, Dušan & Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe, 2014. "Are founding families special blockholders? An investigation of controlling shareholder influence on firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Lozano, M. Belén & Martínez, Beatriz & Pindado, Julio, 2016. "Corporate governance, ownership and firm value: Drivers of ownership as a good corporate governance mechanism," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1333-1343.
    7. Ramaswamy, Kannan & Purkayastha, Saptarshi & Petitt, Barbara S., 2017. "How do institutional transitions impact the efficacy of related and unrelated diversification strategies used by business groups?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Waelchli, Urs & Zeller, Jonas, 2013. "Old captains at the helm: Chairman age and firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1612-1628.
    9. Daniel, Francis & Lohrke, Franz T. & Fornaciari, Charles J. & Turner, R. Jr., 2004. "Slack resources and firm performance: a meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 565-574, June.
    10. Jay B. Barney, 1996. "The Resource-Based Theory of the Firm," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(5), pages 469-469, October.
    11. Haidar, Jamal Ibrahim, 2012. "Trade and productivity: Self-selection or learning-by-exporting in India," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1766-1773.
    12. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    13. Elango, B. & Pattnaik, Chinmay, 2013. "Response strategies of local firms to import competition in emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2460-2465.
    14. Larissa Rabbiosi & Stefano Elia & Fabio Bertoni, 2012. "Acquisitions by EMNCs in Developed Markets," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 193-212, April.
    15. Robert E. Carpenter & Bruce C. Petersen, 2002. "Is The Growth Of Small Firms Constrained By Internal Finance?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 298-309, May.
    16. Musteen, Martina, 2016. "Behavioral factors in offshoring decisions: A qualitative analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3439-3446.
    17. Raveendra Chittoor & Preet S. Aulakh & Sougata Ray, 2015. "What Drives Overseas Acquisitions by Indian Firms? A Behavioral Risk-Taking Perspective," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 255-275, April.
    18. Teirlinck, Peter, 2017. "Configurations of strategic R&D decisions and financial performance in small-sized and medium-sized firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 55-65.
    19. John H. Dunning & Changsu Kim & Donghyun Park, 2008. "Old Wine in New Bottles: A Comparison of Emerging-Market TNCs Today and Developed-Country TNCs Thirty Years Ago," Chapters, in: Karl P. Sauvant (ed.), The Rise of Transnational Corporations from Emerging Markets, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Peter J. Buckley & Surender Munjal & Peter Enderwick & Nicolas Forsans, 2017. "The role of country alliances in reducing the transaction costs of internationalisation: evidence from Indian multinational enterprises," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(3), pages 807-828.
    21. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s2:p:1434-1456 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Geert Duysters & Jojo Jacob & Charmianne Lemmens & Yu Jintian, 2009. "Internationalization and technological catching up of emerging multinationals: a comparative case study of China's Haier group," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 18(2), pages 325-349, April.
    23. Núñez-Pomar, Juan & Prado-Gascó, Vicente & Añó Sanz, Vicente & Crespo Hervás, Josep & Calabuig Moreno, Ferran, 2016. "Does size matter? Entrepreneurial orientation and performance in Spanish sports firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5336-5341.
    24. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    25. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s2:p:1417-1433 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Varadarajan, Rajan, 2009. "Outsourcing: Think more expansively," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 1165-1172, November.
    27. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    28. Birger Wernerfelt, 1995. "The resource‐based view of the firm: Ten years after," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 171-174.
    29. Susan M. Mudambi & Stephen Tallman, 2010. "Make, Buy or Ally? Theoretical Perspectives on Knowledge Process Outsourcing through Alliances," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1434-1456, December.
    30. Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike & Ucbasaran, Deniz, 2001. "The internationalization of new and small firms: A resource-based view," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 333-358, July.
    31. Liu, Yu & Miletkov, Mihail K. & Wei, Zuobao & Yang, Tina, 2015. "Board independence and firm performance in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 223-244.
    32. Elango, B. & Pattnaik, Chinmay & Wieland, Jamie R., 2016. "Do business group characteristics matter? An exploration on the drivers of performance variation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3205-3212.
    33. Balaji S. Chakravarthy, 1986. "Measuring strategic performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(5), pages 437-458, September.
    34. Sandra A. Waddock & Samuel B. Graves, 1997. "The Corporate Social Performance–Financial Performance Link," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 303-319, April.
    35. Jiang, Ruihua Joy & Beamish, Paul W. & Makino, Shige, 2014. "Time compression diseconomies in foreign expansion," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 114-121.
    36. Zélia Serrasqueiro & Paulo Maçãs Nunes, 2008. "Performance and size: empirical evidence from Portuguese SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 195-217, August.
    37. International Monetary Fund, 2009. "India: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2009/186, International Monetary Fund.
    38. Buckley, Peter J. & Tian, Xiaowen, 2017. "Internalization theory and the performance of emerging-market multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 976-990.
    39. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "Do foreign resources assist or impede internationalisation? Evidence from internationalisation of Indian multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 130-140.
    40. Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 1991. "The Future of the Multinational Enterprise," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-21204-0.
    41. Yong Yang & Sushanta Mallick, 2010. "Export Premium, Self‐selection and Learning‐by‐Exporting: Evidence from Chinese Matched Firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(10), pages 1218-1240, October.
    42. Yadong Luo & Rosalie L Tung, 2007. "International expansion of emerging market enterprises: A springboard perspective," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 481-498, July.
    43. Robert Pearce & Marina Papanastassiou, 2009. "Subsidiaries, Innovation and the Strategic Development of Multinationals," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Strategic Development of Multinationals, chapter 1, pages 1-20, Palgrave Macmillan.
    44. Roberto Mura, 2007. "Firm Performance: Do Non‐Executive Directors Have Minds of their Own? Evidence from UK Panel Data," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 81-112, September.
    45. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "The role of experiential and non-experiential knowledge in cross-border acquisitions: The case of Indian multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 675-685.
    46. Marina Papanastassiou & Robert Pearce, 2009. "The Strategic Development of Multinationals," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-25048-2.
    47. Johan Wiklund & DEAN Shepherd, 2003. "Knowledge‐based resources, entrepreneurial orientation, and the performance of small and medium‐sized businesses," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(13), pages 1307-1314, December.
    48. Stefano Federico, 2010. "Outsourcing versus Integration at Home or Abroad," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 742, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    49. Wintoki, M. Babajide & Linck, James S. & Netter, Jeffry M., 2012. "Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 581-606.
    50. Lin, Yini & Wu, Lei-Yu, 2014. "Exploring the role of dynamic capabilities in firm performance under the resource-based view framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 407-413.
    51. Davidsson, Per, 1989. "Entrepreneurship -- And after? A study of growth willingness in small firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 211-226, May.
    52. Sushanta Mallick & Yong Yang, 2013. "Productivity Performance of Export Market Entry and Exit: Evidence from Indian Firms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 809-824, September.
    53. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "Cross-border acquisitions by Indian multinationals: Asset exploitation or asset augmentation?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 986-996.
    54. Farok J. Contractor & Vikas Kumar & Sumit K. Kundu & Torben Pedersen, 2010. "Reconceptualizing the Firm in a World of Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High‐Value Company Functions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1417-1433, December.
    55. Jianxin (Daniel) Chi, 2005. "Understanding the Endogeneity Between Firm Value and Shareholder Rights," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 34(4), Winter.
    56. Wu, Lei-Yu, 2010. "Applicability of the resource-based and dynamic-capability views under environmental volatility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 27-31, January.
    57. Bruno Cassiman & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2006. "In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R& D and External Knowledge Acquisition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 68-82, January.
    58. Buckley, Peter J. & Yu, Pei & Liu, Qing & Munjal, Surender & Tao, Pan, 2016. "The Institutional Influence on the Location Strategies of Multinational Enterprises from Emerging Economies: Evidence from China's Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 425-448, September.
    59. Stefano Federico, 2010. "Outsourcing versus integration at home or abroad and firm heterogeneity," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 47-63, February.
    60. Thite, Mohan & Wilkinson, Adrian & Budhwar, Pawan & Mathews, John A., 2016. "Internationalization of emerging Indian multinationals: Linkage, leverage and learning (LLL) perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 435-443.
    61. Kirca, Ahmet H. & Fernandez, Whitney Douglas & Kundu, Sumit K., 2016. "An empirical analysis and extension of internalization theory in emerging markets: The role of firm-specific assets and asset dispersion in the multinationality-performance relationship," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 628-640.
    62. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    63. Yang, Yong & Mallick, Sushanta, 2014. "Explaining cross-country differences in exporting performance: The role of country-level macroeconomic environment," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 246-259.
    64. Annalee Saxenian, 2002. "Transnational Communities and the Evolution of Global Production Networks: The Cases of Taiwan, China and India," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 183-202.
    65. B Elango & Chinmay Pattnaik, 2007. "Building capabilities for international operations through networks: a study of Indian firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 541-555, July.
    66. Parida, Vinit & Patel, Pankaj C. & Wincent, Joakim & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2016. "Network partner diversity, network capability, and sales growth in small firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2113-2117.
    67. B. Elango & Chinmay Pattnaik, 2011. "Learning Before Making the Big Leap," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 461-481, August.
    68. Silva, Francisca & Majluf, Nicolas & Paredes, Ricardo D., 2006. "Family ties, interlocking directors and performance of business groups in emerging countries: The case of Chile," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 315-321, March.
    69. Stanko, Michael A. & Olleros, Xavier, 2013. "Industry growth and the knowledge spillover regime: Does outsourcing harm innovativeness but help profit?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 2007-2016.
    70. Beatriz Martínez & Ignacio Requejo, 2017. "Does the Type of Family Control Affect the Relationship Between Ownership Structure and Firm Value?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 135-146, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "The role of experiential and non-experiential knowledge in cross-border acquisitions: The case of Indian multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 675-685.
    2. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "Do foreign resources assist or impede internationalisation? Evidence from internationalisation of Indian multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 130-140.
    3. Buckley, Peter J. & Munjal, Surender & Enderwick, Peter & Forsans, Nicolas, 2016. "Cross-border acquisitions by Indian multinationals: Asset exploitation or asset augmentation?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 986-996.
    4. Munjal, Surender & Bhasin, Niti & Nandrajog, Divya & Kundu, Sumit, 2022. "Examining the evolution of emerging market multinational enterprises’ competitive advantages: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 732-744.
    5. Peter J Buckley & Surender Munjal & Ignacio Requejo, 2022. "How does offshore outsourcing of knowledge-intensive activities affect the exports and financial performance of emerging market firms?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 1971-1996, December.
    6. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Kumar, Satish & Mukherjee, Deepraj & Goyal, Kirti, 2022. "Mapping five decades of international business and management research on India: A bibliometric analysis and future directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 864-891.
    7. Stefano Elia & Surender Munjal & Vittoria G. Scalera, 2020. "Sourcing Technological Knowledge Through Foreign Inward Licensing to Boost the Performance of Indian Firms: The Contingent Effects of Internal R&D and Business Group Affiliation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 695-721, October.
    8. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Makarius, Erin E. & Stevens, Charles E., 2021. "A reputation transfer perspective on the internationalization of emerging market firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 568-579.
    9. Asmussen, Christian Geisler & Hashai, Niron & Delios, Andrew, 2022. "The coevolution of international scope and technological knowledge in MNCs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    10. Sharma, Revti Raman & Chowdhury, Sharmistha & Yu, Yang, 2024. "The Effect of Cross-border Acquisition Experience on Subsequent Cross-border Acquisitions: A Test of the S-shape Hypothesis," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3).
    11. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro & Pananond, Pavida, 2023. "The rise of emerging market lead firms in global value chains," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. Ramya T. Venkateswaran, 2023. "Is there an illusion of symmetry in cultural distance from Asia–pacific Emnes? the role of business groups in navigating cultural distance through ambidextrous learning," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 1169-1215, September.
    13. Laura Rienda & Enrique Claver & Diego Quer & Rosario Andreu, 2019. "Family businesses from emerging markets and choice of entry mode abroad: insights from Indian firms," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(1), pages 6-30, February.
    14. Yang, Yong & Driffield, Nigel, 2022. "Leveraging the benefits of location decisions into performance: A global view from matched MNEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 468-483.
    15. Alessia Amighini & Claudio Cozza & Elisa Giuliani & Roberta Rabellotti & Vittoria Scalera, 2015. "Multinational enterprises from emerging economies: what theories suggest, what evidence shows. A literature review," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(3), pages 343-370, September.
    16. Jensen, Peter D. Ørberg, 2012. "A passage to India: A dual case study of activities, processes and resources in offshore outsourcing of advanced services," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 311-326.
    17. Purkayastha, Anish & Karna, Amit & Sharma, Sunil & Bhadra, Dhiman, 2024. "Role of resource investment management and strategic resource deployment capabilities in internationalization-performance relationship," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).
    18. Gilbert Kofi Adarkwah & Tine Petersen Malonæs, 2022. "Firm-specific advantages: a comprehensive review with a focus on emerging markets," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 539-585, June.
    19. Reddy, K.S. & Xie, En & Huang, Yuanyuan, 2016. "Cross-border acquisitions by state-owned and private enterprises: A perspective from emerging economies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1147-1170.
    20. Martinez-Noya, Andrea & Narula, Rajneesh, 2018. "What more can we learn from R&D alliances? : A review and research agenda," MERIT Working Papers 2018-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:484-494. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.