While transaction cost economists have generally argued that hazardous exchange conditions warrant complex contracts or vertical integration, other scholars have argued that trust or relational forms of governance effectively support exchange. These scholars view relational governance as a...

The paper aims at investigating how far transaction costs economics (TCE) concurs in the explanation of outsourcing decisions in firms characterized by thick industrial relations, that is where unions and employees are involved in, and are sometimes able to affect, the relative managerial...

IS discipline has witnessed significant growth in research on IT in- and out-sourcing. Economic theories inform a large portion of this work. This paper examines the use of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) as a theoretical lens to study IT sourcing decisions (internal vs. external). It reviews...

The paper aims at investigating how far transaction costs economics (TCE) concurs in the explanation of outsourcing decisions in firms characterized by “thick’ industrial relations, that is where unions and employees are involved in, and are sometimes able to affect, the relative managerial...

The paper aims at ‘embedding’ the outsourcing firm by considering it as a four-fold unit of analysis: i.e. as an organizational, production, industrial and innovation unit. Theoretical correlations between outsourcing decisions and outsourcing variables are formulated and then tested with...

Relational contracts - informal agreements sustained by the value of future relationships – are integral parts of global production processes. This paper develops a repeated-game model of global sourcing in which final goods producers decide whether to engage with their suppliers in relational...

Informal long-term relationships and mutual confidence play a crucial role in modern economies in at least two dimensions. First, the performance of firms is strongly affected by their capacity to solve organizational questions effectively and this capacity is apparently strongly related to...

Informal long-term relationships and mutual confidence play a crucial role in modern economies in at least two dimensions. First, the performance of firms is strongly affected by their capacity to solve organizational questions effectively and this capacity is apparently strongly related to...