The general profile of the outsourcing firm: evidence for a local production system of Emilia Romagna

In Chapter 8 Massimiliano Mazzanti, Sandro Montresor and Paolo Pini analyse theoretical correlations between outsourcing decisions and outsourcing variables, on the basis of a representative cross-sectional sample of firms of a local production system in Reggio Emilia (Italy). In this chapter the outsourcing firm is considered as a four-fold unit of analysis: that is, as an organizational, production, industrial and innovation unit. The authors point out that outsourcing firms of the sample tend to avoid The authors point out that outsourcing firms of the sample tend to avoid the danger of being locked into a low productivity growth trajectory because of a myopic pursuit of a mere reduction of costs in the short run. Indeed, in the local production system the general profile of the outsourcing firms appears to be strategic rather than oriented to a short-run perspective, in the sense that tapping into the provider’s resources and competences to eventually promote technological innovation seems more relevant than searching for lower costs by contracting out.