IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joiaen/v5y2016i1d10.1186_s13731-016-0050-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation and service outsourcing: an empirical analysis based on data from Tunisian firms

Author

Listed:
  • Hanen Sdiri

    (UAQUAP-Tunis Higher Institute of Management)

  • Mohamed Ayadi

    (UAQUAP-Tunis Higher Institute of Management)

Abstract

Recently, outsourcing services has been an important component of the organizational strategy of service firms. However, most research studies mainly focus on analyzing the determining factors of outsourcing at the expense of its structural effects. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which outsourcing relationships can be a source of service innovation by using a sample of 108 Tunisian service firms. Specifically, we are interested in the domestic outsourcing of auxiliary activities. Our results support the evidence of positive effects of outsourcing service activities on the capacity of innovation. This suggests that outsourcing allows Tunisian service firms to create value, increase flexibility and improve the quality of their services.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanen Sdiri & Mohamed Ayadi, 2016. "Innovation and service outsourcing: an empirical analysis based on data from Tunisian firms," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joiaen:v:5:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1186_s13731-016-0050-z
    DOI: 10.1186/s13731-016-0050-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13731-016-0050-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13731-016-0050-z?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. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2004. "Outsourcing, Foreign Ownership, and Productivity: Evidence from UK Establishment‐level Data," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 817-832, November.
    2. Holger Görg & Aoife Hanley, 2011. "Services Outsourcing And Innovation: An Empirical Investigation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 321-333, April.
    3. Peter Maskell & Torben Pedersen & Bent Petersen & Jens Dick-Nielsen, 2007. "Learning Paths to Offshore Outsourcing: From Cost Reduction to Knowledge Seeking," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 239-257.
    4. Giuseppe De Luca & Valeria Perotti, 2011. "Estimation of ordered response models with sample selection," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(2), pages 213-239, June.
    5. Sdiri, Hanen & Ayadi, Mohamed, 2011. "Innovation decision of Tunisian service firms: an empirical analysis," MPRA Paper 30898, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Cusmano, Lucia & Mancusi, Maria Luisa & Morrison, Andrea, 2009. "Innovation and the geographical and organisational dimensions of outsourcing: Evidence from Italian firm-level data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 183-195, September.
    7. Bartel, Ann P. & Lach, Saul & Sicherman, Nachum, 2008. "Outsourcing and Technological Innovations: A Firm-Level Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 3334, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    9. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    10. Faïz Gallouj & Paul Windrum, 2009. "Services and services innovation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 141-148, April.
    11. Faïz Gallouj, 2009. "Services and Innovation," Post-Print halshs-01113947, HAL.
    12. Glass, Amy Jocelyn & Saggi, Kamal, 2001. "Innovation and wage effects of international outsourcing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 67-86, January.
    13. David Gago & Luis Rubalcaba, 2007. "Innovation and ICT in service firms: towards a multidimensional approach for impact assessment," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 25-44, February.
    14. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-092 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Paul Windrum & Andreas Reinstaller & Christopher Bull, 2009. "The outsourcing productivity paradox: total outsourcing, organisational innovation, and long run productivity growth," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 197-229, April.
    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. Sdiri, Hanen & Ayadi, Mohamed, 2012. "Innovation et externalisation des services: une analyse empirique sur données d'entreprises tunisiennes [Innovation and outsourcing of services: a firm-level analysis]," MPRA Paper 39359, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Bettina Peters & Rebecca Riley & Iulia Siedschlag & Priit Vahter & John McQuinn, 2018. "Internationalisation, innovation and productivity in services: evidence from Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 154(3), pages 585-615, August.
    3. Faïz Gallouj & Maria Savona, 2010. "Towards a Theory of Innovation in Services: A State of the Art," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Feser, Daniel & Proeger, Till, 2015. "Knowledge-intensive business services as credence goods: A demand-side approach," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 232, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    5. Baier , Elisabeth & Rammer , Christian & Schubert , Torben, 2013. "The Impact of Innovation Off-shoring on Organizational Adaptability," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/44, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    6. Daniel Feser & Till Proeger, 2018. "Knowledge-Intensive Business Services as Credence Goods—a Demand-Side Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(1), pages 62-80, March.
    7. Cusmano, Lucia & Mancusi, Maria Luisa & Morrison, Andrea, 2009. "Innovation and the geographical and organisational dimensions of outsourcing: Evidence from Italian firm-level data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 183-195, September.
    8. Francesco Bogliacino & Mario Pianta, 2016. "The Pavitt Taxonomy, revisited: patterns of innovation in manufacturing and services," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(2), pages 153-180, August.
    9. Marina Rybalka, 2015. "The innovative input mix. Assessing the importance of R&D and ICT investments for firm performance in manufacturing and services," Discussion Papers 801, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    10. Bettina Peters & Rebecca Riley & Iulia Siedschlag & Priit Vahter & John McQuinn, 2014. "Innovation and Productivity in Services: Evidence from Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2014-04, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Francesca Mameli & Simona Iammarino & Ron Boschma, 2012. "Regional variety and employment growth in Italian labour market areas: services versus manufacturing industries," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1203, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2012.
    12. Frank Crowley & Jane Bourke, 2017. "The Influence Of Human Resource Management Systems On Innovation: Evidence From Irish Manufacturing And Service Firms," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(01), pages 1-28, January.
    13. Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2010. "Invisible innovation and hidden performance in services: a challenge for public policy," Post-Print hal-01672583, HAL.
    14. L. Rubalcaba & P. Windrum & F. Gallouj & Meglio Di & A. Pyka & J. Sundbo & M. Weber, 2011. "ServPPIN. The Contribution of Public and Private Services to European Growth and Welfare, and the Role of Public-Private Innovation Networks. Servppin Final Publishable Summary Report," Working Papers hal-01111787, HAL.
    15. Homayounfard, Amir & Zaefarian, Ghasem, 2022. "Key challenges and opportunities of service innovation processes in technology supplier-service provider partnerships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1284-1302.
    16. Paul Windrum, 2013. "The co-production of health innovations," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Luis Rubalcaba & Paul Windrum (ed.), Public–Private Innovation Networks in Services, chapter 9, pages 228-246, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Faïz Gallouj & Luis Rubalcaba & Paul Windrum, 2013. "Conclusions and agenda for future research," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Luis Rubalcaba & Paul Windrum (ed.), Public–Private Innovation Networks in Services, chapter 18, pages 462-486, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Crass, Dirk & Schwiebacher, Franz, 2013. "Do trademarks diminish the substitutability of products in innovative knowledge-intensive services?," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-061, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Nicola De Liso & Anna Serena Vergori, 2017. "The Different Approaches to the Study of Innovation in Services in Europe and the USA," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 121-146, February.
    20. Koskela-Huotari, Kaisa & Edvardsson, Bo & Jonas, Julia M. & Sörhammar, David & Witell, Lars, 2016. "Innovation in service ecosystems—Breaking, making, and maintaining institutionalized rules of resource integration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2964-2971.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Outsourcing; Services sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    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:spr:joiaen:v:5:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1186_s13731-016-0050-z. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.