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Production Outsourcing, Organizational Governance and Firm's Technological Performance: Evidence from Italy

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  • Antonietti, Roberto
  • Cainelli, Giulio

Abstract

Aim of this paper is to study whether and how the firm's decision to outsource production activities affects its technological performance. In particular, we look at how the alignment between the firm's governance strategy and the underlying attributes of the transactions affects the capacity of the firm to introduce new products and processes. Using microeconomic data on a repeated cross-section of Italian manufacturing firms for the period 1998-2003, we develop a two-stage approach: first, we estimate the determinants of the firm's organizational governance (production outsourcing); second, we incorporate a measure of governance misalignment into a technological performance relation. We find (i) that firms not aligned with the optimal organizational governance perform less well in terms of process innovation than more aligned competitors, but (ii) that misalignment has a positive effect on product innovation. However, this counterintuitive result is strongly characterized by non-linear effects that reverse the latter correlation for high values of governance misfit. .

Suggested Citation

  • Antonietti, Roberto & Cainelli, Giulio, 2007. "Production Outsourcing, Organizational Governance and Firm's Technological Performance: Evidence from Italy," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 9553, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:feemkt:9553
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.9553
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Pieri, 2018. "Vertical organization of production and firm growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 83-106.
    2. Fabio Pieri & Enrico Zaninotto, 2013. "Vertical integration and efficiency: an application to the Italian machine tool industry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 397-416, February.
    3. Luca Ferrucci & Antonio Picciotti, 2017. "From economic dualism to local variety: The development of service industries in Italian regions," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(1), pages 14-33, February.
    4. Roberto Antonietti, 2016. "From outsourcing to productivity, passing through training: microeconometric evidence from Italy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 407-425, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies;

    JEL classification:

    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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