Competence, Specificity and Outsourcing : Impact on the complexity of the contract
Résumé
With the blurring of the corporation's traditional boundaries, new forms of contracting have progressively emerged. Outsourcing is one of the most prominent ones. This paper focus on outsourcing as an instance of vertical disintegration i.e. letting suppliers take over activities that were once undertaken in-house which has been far less researched than the classical 'Make or Buy' issue. Outsourcing as an instance of vertical disintegration is currently booming in service and support activities. Service outsourcing has recently moved beyond basic activities e.g., gardening, catering and cleaning to encompass more elaborate activities of the value chain e.g., information technology systems e.g., telecommunications, transportation, logistics, R&D.