Logistics outsourcing has been widely adopted by firms as a means to reduce costs and increase flexibility. To ensure these expected outcomes, logistics outsourcing processes must be managed with ...appropriate governance mechanisms, but their effects on firm performance have hitherto been inconclusive in the literature due to overlooking of operational mechanisms. This study aims to shed light on the effects of the outsourcing management process (OMP), which is an operational mechanism, on the following two types of logistics service outsourcing: basic outsourcing and advanced outsourcing. By drawing upon resource-based views, we validated a proposed model based on survey data collected from 250 subsidies of publicly listed manufacturers in China. The results revealed that OMP affects the effectiveness of the two types of logistics outsourcing differently. While basic logistics outsourcing affects cost and delivery directly, advanced logistics outsourcing influences the performances via interaction with OMP. This study is the first to report this relationship. This study further makes a contribution by showing the conditional utility of OMP and its service-dependent nature, which has usually been ignored in the literature.
ABSTRACT
In this article, we introduce a game‐theoretic model to examine the impact of outsourcing knowledge, as well as firm‐ and market‐level factors, on a buyer's decision of whether to employ a ...supply chain intermediary or an agent to identify a manufacturer for her new product. The buyer faces two options: identify the manufacturer directly or explore outsourcing indirectly through an agent. In the case of direct outsourcing, the buyer evaluates, negotiates with, and identifies the manufacturers in‐house, whereas, under indirect outsourcing, the agent takes over these activities in exchange for a commission based on the transaction value between the buyer and the manufacturer. The model introduced in this article captures the buyer–agent incentive misalignment. Unexpectedly, we find that although attractiveness of indirect outsourcing increases as the buyer's outsourcing knowledge increases, it follows an inverse‐U shape as the agent gains more outsourcing knowledge. We further demonstrate that the observability of the buyer's outsourcing knowledge is another key driver of the outsourcing‐mode strategy. In addition, we show that the buyer's tendency to explore indirect outsourcing is greater if the sensitivity to the retail price or the commission rate is higher, or the base demand or cost of delayed time‐to‐market associated with the new product is lower. We extend our analysis to consider a contract form, whereby the agent's commission payment is driven by the expected savings generated for the buyer, and to consider the setting in which the buyer's outsourcing knowledge is private information.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse and investigate how intensified regulatory requirements related to outsourcing have influenced and changed the outsourcing activities of German ...financial institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involved interviewing 11 outsourcing experts in the German financial sector, including four of the five largest banks in Germany. In coding and analysing the collected data, this study adopted the approach of a qualitative content analysis framework.
Findings
The study found that the revised legal requirements have had a significant and potentially negative impact on the efficiency of outsourcing, leading to a necessity for German financial institutions to internally realign their outsourcing managements. The study further revealed practical realigned methods German financial institutions executed to meet the legal requirements.
Originality/value
The impact, meaning and relevance of legal requirements in the outsourcing environment of German financial institutions has been relatively under-researched from a qualitative perspective and focused on other primary fields of investigation like outsourcing decisions and outcomes. This study has, by adopting a qualitative approach, addressed the identified gap by providing first-hand insights and new knowledge.
•The managers’ perceived benefits of outsourcing affect current outsourcing levels.•The outsourcing benefits have a direct impact on current outsourcing while an indirect impact on future ...outsourcing.•The current level of outsourcing mediates the link between perceived benefits and desired outsourcing.•The perceived risks of outsourcing have a non-significant moderating effect on future outsourcing.
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the interactions between perceived benefits and risks of outsourcing and outsourcing adoption from the hoteliers’ perspective. Data were collected from 123 hotels in Egypt using a list of 32 hotel activities. Results revealed that managers’ perceived benefits of outsourcing had a direct positive effect on the current level of outsourcing, while indirect effects on the desired level of outsourcing. Interestingly, results confirmed the mediating role of current outsourcing between managers’ perceived benefits and the desired outsourcing. However, the perceived risks of outsourcing had a nonsignificant moderating effect. The findings provide implications for both theory and practice.
IT vendor integration as catalyst of IT outsourcing success Navarro-Paule, Andrés J.; Romerosa-Martínez, M. Mercedes; Lloréns-Montes, Francisco Javier
The Journal of business & industrial marketing,
11/2023, Letnik:
38, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
This paper aims to explain how small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) create information technology (IT) business value through blended IT outsourcing (ITO). The explanatory framework it ...proposes enables SMEs to replicate IT capability outcomes (i.e. enhance their economic, strategic and technological competences, namely, ITO success) by endorsing an ITO strategy catalyzed by IT vendor integration.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses covariance-based structural equation modeling to test the proposed research model. Data are collected from 251 knowledge-intensive business SMEs located in Science and Technology Parks in Spain.
Findings
The results demonstrate empirically that SMEs can replicate IT capability benefits (i.e. enhance their non-IT competences) through blended ITO in which IT, conceptualized as a transversal supporting activity, is outsourced to an IT vendor while the value creation process remains with the buyer. The integration (i.e. process integration and information sharing) of an IT-proficient vendor catalyzes ITO success. More specifically, the results show that, although process integration is not directly related to competence enhancement, fosters information sharing, which directly facilitates ITO success. The results also show that IT vendor proficiency accounts for ex ante trust.
Practical implications
Managers should think of transformational ITO as a strategy to enhance firm competences. For blended ITO strategies to succeed, managers must have a comprehensive understanding of the business they run, as it is important to create conditions that foster inter-firm information sharing. To achieve these conditions, managers should take special care in selecting boundary spanners, who are the pivotal links in competence enhancement.
Originality/value
While most research focuses on ongoing trust (i.e. trust develops as ITO evolves), this study focuses on initial (i.e. ex ante) trust and analyzes IT vendor proficiency (expert, experienced and reputed) to examine trust as an antecedent of ITO. This study also draws on previous conceptualizations of vendor integration to develop and analyze a two-step integration model to explain how IT vendor integration (i.e. process integration and information sharing) catalyzes enhancement of the buyer’s non-IT competences. This study focuses on SMEs, which are often neglected in ITO studies.
•IT outsourcing (ITO) dynamic capabilities affect ITO success via IT reconfiguration.•ITO dynamic capabilities affect ITO success via IT service delivery.•ITO contract management capabilities affect ...ITO success via IT service delivery.•ITO relational capabilities affect ITO success via IT service delivery.
This study proposes and tests a model of information technology outsourcing (ITO) capabilities as antecedents of ITO success. Building on the dynamic capabilities perspective (DCP), the model posits that ITO sensing, ITO seizing, and ITO orchestrating capabilities will influence ITO success by way of both successful reconfiguration of IT solutions and successful delivery of IT services. Building on extant ITO research, the model also hypothesizes that contract management capabilities and relationship management capabilities will influence ITO success via the successful delivery of IT services. Data from a cross-sectional survey of 152 large U.S.-based organizations in various industries were analyzed with PLS. The results support the hypothesis that successful reconfiguration mediates the effect of dynamic capabilities on ITO success. They partially support the hypothesis of successful delivery as mediator of the effect of dynamic capabilities on ITO success. The hypothesis of successful delivery as a mediator of the effect of relationship management capabilities and contract management capabilities on ITO success is supported only for relationship management capabilities. The study offers a theoretical anchoring for the conceptualization of ITO capabilities, which complements the rich and context-specific case-based literature of ITO capabilities and extends current research by adding to existing explanations of how ITO success is achieved.
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