Guido Orzes

International purchasing offices in China: roles and resource/capability requirements

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address global sourcing organisational design through the following research questions: how do the roles performed by International Purchasing Offices (IPOs) change over time?; what are the resources/capabilities required by an IPO for an effective performance and how do they change over time?; and what are the contingent factors affecting such changes? Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed an exploratory multiple case study approach and analysed 14 Western IPOs located in China for a period between 2007 and 2012. The data were primarily collected through 34 direct, semi-structured interviews of IPO heads and sourcing managers or senior buyers. Findings – The authors identify and discuss the importance of ten roles played by IPOs and 12 required resources/capabilities. Furthermore, considering the changes that occurred to these IPOs over a five-year period (2007-2012), the authors observe three distinct evolutionary behaviours (i.e. “overall developme...

Countertrade: compensatory requests to sell abroad

The term ‘countertrade’ refers to a set of (commercial) agreements between a buyer and a seller in which the primary transaction is accompanied by a variety of additional conditions. This trade form is very relevant: the estimates provided by the literature show that up to 30% of the total value of international transactions depends on these agreements (Hammond, 1990; Forker, 1996; Hennart and Anderson, 1993). Most of the existing studies focus on some countertrade forms (mainly barter and counterpurchase) and mainly analyse legal or macroeconomic aspects of these agreements, whilst analyses of their organisational and managerial implications are rare. The purpose of this work is to develop the first classification of the compensatory requests used in ‘offset’ agreements, which are among the most important, complex and least-documented countertrade forms. The study is also aimed at identifying some unexplored issues to be analysed in future researches.

Performance implications of SA8000 certification

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relationship between the adoption of Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) – which is considered the most important ethical certification standard – and firm performance, building on agency and contingency theories. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse secondary longitudinal balance sheet data of listed firms employing a rigorous event-study approach and compare SA8000-certified companies to different control groups based on three matching criteria, i.e., industry, size, and pre-certification performance. The authors then study the moderating effects of the cultural features, the country’s development level, and the labour intensity on the causal relationship through multiple regression methods. Findings The authors find that SA8000 certification positively affects labour productivity and sales performance but has no effect on profitability. Furthermore, the study supports that the relationship between SA8000 and profitability is moderated by two cultural features of the home country of the firms (i.e. power distance and uncertainty avoidance). Originality/value This is the first study, which empirically tests the effects of the ethical certification SA8000 on firm performance using a cross-country sample. In addition, the authors contribute to the wider debate on the effects of corporate social responsibility practices on firm performance.

Build–operate–transfer (BOT): an emerging entry mode for service offshoring

Abstract Build–operate–transfer (BOT) is a well-established solution used in the engineering and construction industries for building different types of infrastructure (e.g. railways, highways, power plants). In recent years, BOT has increasingly been adopted by companies in the service industry as a mode for entering foreign markets. BOT in service offshoring (SO) is characterised by a number of significant peculiarities (e.g. different numbers of involved parties, fee methods, lengths of the concession period), which may call into question the possibility of extending existing findings that relate to infrastructure projects. The aims of this work are as follows: to collect and systematise existing knowledge on engineering and construction BOT projects; to highlight – through an exploratory case study – how these results could be applied to BOT in SO; and to shed light on the factors affecting the choice between different entry modes (including BOT).

Global sourcing strategy and structure: towards a conceptual framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a synthesised conceptual framework for global sourcing (GS) strategy and structure. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a systematic literature review method and analyse through content analysis techniques 52 peer-reviewed journal articles focussed on GS strategy and structure. Based on these analyses, a conceptual model is developed. Findings A synthesised construct of GS strategy, consisting of three dimensions, i.e., supply internationalisation, internal integration and external integration, is proposed. The GS structure construct is further broken down into structural design and control and coordination, consisting of three dimensions for each. Propositions for GS strategy, GS structure and, in particular, the relationships between them are developed for future empirical validation. Originality/value This is the first study which synthesises various dimensions of GS strategy and GS structure and advances/extends the theory of the strategy-structure nexus to a GS context. The conceptual model provides a comprehensive framework for future empirical work and opens avenues of research on this topic.

Strategic Types and Competences of Domestic and Foreign Plants: An Empirical Study:

A very important decision for multinational companies’ managers concerns what activities, phases and competences should be located in the home country and what could instead be offshored. Our study seeks to support them in this choice by answering to the following questions: (a) should the specializations assigned to foreign plants be different from those of domestic plants? (b) should key competences be held only in the domestic manufacturing base or also in the offshore one? We collect and analyze a wide set of data of an international research project, concerning competences and manufacturing practices of 236 MNC plants located in nine countries. We identify through cluster analysis different group profiles within domestic and foreign subsamples and compare the corresponding ones. We then compare domestic and foreign plants in a set of competences and manufacturing practices. Our empirical findings show that (a) the specializations (strategic types) of domestic and foreign plants can be substantially the same and (b) offshore plants rather than domestic ones tend in general to hold the most advanced competences.