برونسپاری برون مرزی و عملکرد شرکت: اثرات تعدیل کننده بر اندازه، رشد و منابع ضعیف Offshore outsourcing and firm performance: Moderating effects of size, growth and slack resources

1. Introduction Organizations are increasingly becoming leaner and more focused via outsourcing; i.e., locating certain specialized activities outside their boundaries. It helps the firm to become agile and in turn enhance its competitiveness (Gilley & Rasheed, 2000; Quinn, 1999). Anecdotal evidence highlights the prominent use of outsourcing by business organizations due to its positive impact on firm performance. For instance, an article published in Forbes reports that Apple corporation adds at least US$14 billion to its profit every year by outsourcing production into China (Chen, 2012). However, empirical research in this field is still evolving. Thus far, scholars have provided mixed results suggesting positive, negative or no relationship between outsourcing and performance. It seems that previous studies have not systematically captured the impact of outsourcing on firm performance and further investigation is warranted to bring some coherence (for details, see Ketokivi, 2016 and Lahiri, 2016). Moreover, prior work has mainly focused on the outsourcing models of large Western multinational enterprises, which seek efficiency gains by relocating production to emerging economies, where the cost of production is lower (e.g., Guillén & García-Canal, 2009; Kang, Wu, Hong, & Park, 2012; Musteen, 2016). Meanwhile, less attention has been paid to outsourcing patterns of firms from emerging economies. Firms from such economies have higher needs and motivations for outsourcing because they are more likely to lack necessary resources compared to large Western multinational enterprises (Buckley, Munjal, Enderwick, & Forsans, 2016a; Ciravegna, Lopez, & Kundu, 2016; Ramamurti, 2012; Thite, Wilkinson, Budhwar, & Mathews, 2016; Westhead, Wright, & Ucbasaran, 2001). Moreover, as a result of their continued expansion, the needs of emerging market firms for seeking specialized resources outside their boundaries are growing rapidly. Previous studies (e.g., Buckley & Munjal, 2017; Chittoor, Aulakh, & Ray, 2015; Luo & Tung, 2007; Munjal, 2014a; Rabbiosi, Elia, & Bertoni, 2012) relate this growing need for specialized foreign resources with the increase in cross-border acquisitions. This strategy gives emerging market firms access to specialized resources tied with other firms. However, cross-border acquisitions are a complex and expensive mode of getting valuable foreign resources. In addition, it may not always be a viable alternative for the firm. In this context, we argue that firms can gain access to certain strategic resources through outsourcing. In particular, we focus on technological resources and professional services, such as marketing and managerial skills, because these are the typical resources and capabilities lacked by emerging market firms (Dunning, Kim, & Park, 2008; Luo & Tung, 2007; Munjal, 2014b; Ramamurti & Singh, 2010).