IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trn/utwpol/0907.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Outsourcing and firm productivity: evidence for an Italian local production system

Author

Listed:
  • Sandro Montresor
  • Davide Antonioli
  • Massimiliano Mazzanti
  • Paolo Pini

Abstract

The paper investigates empirically the impact that outsourcing strategies have on the labour productivity of firms embedded in a local production system characterized by idiosyncratic techno-economic and organizational features. A diachronic cross-section econometric model of the productivity impact of outsourcing is applied to a sample of firms based in the local production system (LPS) of Reggio Emilia (RE) (in Emilia Romagna, Italy). The application confirms some of the results the empirical literature reports for other no or less context specific empirical applications, in particular their dependency on the kind of outsourced activities, the internationalization of the outsourcing firm and time horizon of the productivity effects. On the other hand, when the actual extent at which the different kinds of activities are outsourced is retained, important exceptions to these results are obtained: the positive impact of the externalization of manufacturing activities is the most relevant and the most consistent with the district nature of the investigated LPS.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandro Montresor & Davide Antonioli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Paolo Pini, 2009. "Outsourcing and firm productivity: evidence for an Italian local production system," Openloc Working Papers 0907, Public policies and local development.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpol:0907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.openloc.eu/cms/storage/openloc/working_papers/2009/MontresorEtAl2009.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thijs Raa & Edward Wolff, 2001. "Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 149-165, September.
    2. Alessia Lo Turco, 2007. "International Outsourcing and Productivity in Italian Manufacturing Sectors," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 125-146.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Dario Guarascio & Mario Pianta & Matteo Lucchese & Francesco Bogliacino, 2015. "Business cycles, technology and exports," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 32(2), pages 167-200, August.
    3. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Sandro Montresor & Paolo Pini, 2009. "What Drives (or Hampers) Outsourcing? Evidence for a Local Production System in Emilia Romagna," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 331-365.

    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. 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.
    2. Fuster García, Begoña & Martínez Mora, Carmen, 2013. "Offshoring of Services in Spain: International Fragmentation of Activities or Change in Procurement Sources?/Offshoring de Servicios en España: ¿Fragmentación internacional de actividades o cambio en ," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 31, pages 655-676, Septiembr.
    3. Mary Amiti & Shang‐Jin Wei, 2009. "Service Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from the US," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 203-220, February.
    4. Berlingieri, Giuseppe, 2013. "Outsourcing and the rise in services," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51532, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Wooseok Ok, 2016. "The Korean exception: service outsourcing by manufacturing firms and the role of institutions," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 165-182, June.
    6. Chen, Guo & Liu, Yishuang & Gao, Qizheng & Zhang, Jianqing, 2023. "Does regional services development enhance manufacturing firm productivity? A manufacturing servitization perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 451-466.
    7. repec:wsr:ecbook:2008:i:i-017 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Mariotti, Sergio & Nicolini, Marcella & Piscitello, Lucia, 2013. "Vertical linkages between foreign MNEs in service sectors and local manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 133-145.
    9. Kiyoyasu Tanaka, 2009. "Producer Services and Manufacturing Productivity: Evidence from Japan Industrial Productivity Database," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd09-076, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    10. Begoña Fuster & Adelaida Lillo-Bañuls & Carmen Martínez-Mora, 2018. "Offshoring of services as a competitive strategy in the tourism industry," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(8), pages 963-979, December.
    11. Elisabetta Magnani & David Prentice, 2010. "Outsourcing And Unionization: A Tale Of Misallocated (Resistance) Resources," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 460-482, April.
    12. Satya P. Das & Anuradha Saha, 2015. "Growth of business services: A supply‐side hypothesis," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(1), pages 83-109, February.
    13. Ohnemus, Jörg, 2007. "Does IT Outsourcing Increase Firm Success? An Empirical Assessment using Firm-Level Data," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-087, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Saibal Kar & Meghna Dutta, 2018. "Outsourcing and Productivity During Economic Crisis: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Firms," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(2), pages 168-182, December.
    15. Giuliano Conti & Alessia Lo Turco & Daniela Maggioni, 2014. "Rethinking the import-productivity nexus for Italian manufacturing," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 589-617, November.
    16. Chen, Shih-Fen S. & Liaw, Chya-Yi E., 2020. "The coincidence of private branding and foreign sourcing: Is there a causality direction?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 268-276.
    17. Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2008. "Producer Services and Competitiveness of Manufacturing Exports," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 34225.
    18. Alberto López, 2014. "Outsourcing and firm productivity: a production function approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 977-998, November.
    19. Catherine J. Morrison Paul & Mahmut Yasar, 2009. "Outsourcing, productivity, and input composition at the plant level," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 422-439, May.
    20. Elisabetta Magnani, 2012. "Vertical disintegration and training: evidence from a matched employer–employee survey," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 199-217, October.
    21. Ohnemus, Jörg, 2009. "Productivity effects of business process outsourcing: a firm-level investigation based on panel data," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    outsourcing; productivity; transaction costs; industrial relations; innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining

    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:trn:utwpol:0907. 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: Francesco Rentocchini (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detreit.html .

    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.