The organizational changes leading to "make and buy" decisions and their effects on outsourcing control. The case of STMicroelectronics

Journal title MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Author/s Antonio Leotta
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2014/3
Language Italian Pages 28 P. 59-86 File size 174 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2014-003004
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Although make or buy decisions are still studied as choices between alternative options, hybrid organizational forms, resulting from make and buy decisions, are quite widespread. Such settings may derive from outsourcing processes which, due to various constraints, can remain uncompleted. From the perspective of a single decision-maker, a partial outsourcing may be due to organizational resistances, especially from the entities that should be outsourced. In many circumstances, however, even though these resistances seem to constrain the outsourcing choices, they can allow appropriate organizational solutions, as in the case of outsourcing control, which can take advantage from make and buy decisions. The paper examines how a partial outsourcing process impacts on the configuration of outsourcing control and its effectiveness. After a critical review of various theoretical perspectives, the actor-network view is proposed as the most appropriate approach to study the phenomenon. A single case study is then carried out to show how the viewpoints of various organizational units allow the assessment of a hybrid organization where internal units allows an effective outsourcing control.

Keywords: Outsourcing, control, actor network organizational resistance

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Antonio Leotta, I processi di cambiamento che portano alle scelte di "make and buy" e gli effetti sul controllo dei sub-fornitori. Il caso STMicroelectronics in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 3/2014, pp 59-86, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2014-003004