In this paper, we argue that capabilities serve as shift parameters that result in a change in the critical value of asset specificity at which firms switch from in-sourcing to outsourcing. Capabilities have two effects: they result in a change in firm production costs and in firm governance...

The article discusses the origins of the U-shaped average cost curve, which is one of the most widely used tools in microeconomic analysis. Its widespread use leads many to consider it as a basic tool, obscuring the fact that the graph of the U-shaped average cost curve is part of a complex...

This paper presents a new methodology aimed at building institutional indicators. Up to now, all the available indicators have relied on an analysis of the supply of legal protection. Conversely we propose here a methodology based on the analysis of the demand for legal protection, as it is...

This paper surveys alternative approaches to the emergence and evolution of institutions. The challenge is to develop frameworks capable of capturing both stability and change. We follow a “descaling” approach to show how founding assumptions about economics—namely, alternative assumptions...

We analyze the privatization of highway firms, focusing both on the sale of the shares of these firms and the tenders organized by the highway firms for the maintenance of the highways network. If a public works firm buys shares of a highway firm, tenders become inefficient and the revenue of...

The evolution of international alliances has raised the interest of literature on firm’s theory and in terms of the conception and its capacities. Thus, the firm’s evolution is viewed from the technological opportunities and its capacities perspective. In this context, the joint venture is...

Les effets des alliances entre firmes appartenant à des pays d'inégal développement suscitent un intérêt particulier non seulement lié au transfert matériel inhérent des alliances, mais aussi au développement de la capacité d'absorption technologique, et précisément l'analyse de...

Outsourcing is one of the organizational practices that have increased in popularity over the past decade, even in the public sector. However, management control literature gives a little attention to this new form of organization. Two paradigms dominate the inter-organizational management...

The aim of this article is to identify management control archetypes in an outsourcing context and contingency factors that underlie them. The exploratory case study, carried upon three Moroccan publicly owned offices indicates that two combinations of Ouchi's (1980) management control...