In every production process, suppliers have to decide whether an item should be produced and stored as inventory before an explicit purchase order is received (production in advance), or whether it should be produced only after such an order is received (production to order). We study the...

We revisit the evidence about firms' performance and their international status in a large sample of Italian enterprises. Three results stand out. First, firms engaging in foreign production of final goods, in addition to export activities, are more productivethan firms that only export abroad....

It is well established in the literature that foreign affiliates are subject to a series of governance and assimilation costs that may deteriorate their performance. This is particularly relevant for firms which have been recently acquired by foreign investors. We employ the variation in civic...