IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jintbs/v42y2011i2p334-344.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What goes around, comes around: Effects of offshore outsourcing on the export performance of firms

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Bertrand

    ([1] Graduate School of Management, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia[2] Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France)

Abstract

We examine the effect of offshore outsourcing on the export performance of firms. Building on the theories of international business, the resource-based view and transaction cost economics, we argue that offshore outsourcing helps firms – directly or indirectly – to export more. It may reduce their production costs and enhance their flexibility. It may also provide them with new resources and market knowledge. However, the impact of offshore outsourcing depends on the resources and capabilities of firms to manage a network of foreign suppliers, and to absorb foreign knowledge. Using a database of around 2000 manufacturing MNEs in France in 1999, we find that offshore outsourcing increases export performance, the effects being stronger in the export markets where firms import intermediate goods. We also show that the firm size, the organization of intra-firm imports and the export experience moderate the effects of offshore outsourcing positively. These findings have implications for firms and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Bertrand, 2011. "What goes around, comes around: Effects of offshore outsourcing on the export performance of firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(2), pages 334-344, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:42:y:2011:i:2:p:334-344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n2/pdf/jibs201026a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n2/full/jibs201026a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:jintbs:v:42:y:2011:i:2:p:334-344. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.