Outsourcing, business performance and vertical integration boundaries: An empirical analysis

Decisions related to make or buy are discarding more and more the simplified accounting approach, extensively based on the evaluation on the mere short term convenience, in favor of the adoption of strategic approaches. Instead, the degree of vertical integration, the specific business strategies, and core competencies of companies seem to have the highest consideration when managers have to decide how to implement the value chains of the businesses. Many studies have been debating the topic of outsourcing without a rigorous investigation on its actual impact on business performance. This paper presents an original empirical study based on the analysis of the impact of outsourcing decisions on business performance.