ICT and Global Sourcing - Evidence for German Manufacturing and Service Firms

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. share of employees with Internet access in the manufacturing sector. E-commerceintensive firms are more likely to source inputs from abroad but generally, this relationship between e-commerce and global sourcing is only robust in services and much stronger there than in manufacturing. In both sectors, it is strongest in industries with higher upstream industry diversity. Moreover, labour productivity is positively linked to global sourcing. The findings support arguments for the importance of the Internet for global trade and they confirm the productivity advantage of importing in comparison to non-importing firms that is stated in the literature. ICT and Global SourcingEvidence for German Manufacturing and Service Firms

Offshoring and the Polarization of the Demand for Capital

“…Abramovsky and Griffith (), for instance, show that more ICT‐intensive firms in the United Kingdom are more likely to offshore business services than less ICT‐intensive firms. Broadly similar results for Germany are obtained by Rasel (), who also points toward a positive relationship between ICT and firms' offshoring decisions. However, note that the existing literature focuses on the other direction of causality than this article.…”

“…Overall, a consensus has emerged in the empirical literature that offshoring contributes to the decline in the demand for low‐ and medium‐skilled workers with a concomitant fall in their wages relative to those of high‐skilled workers (Feenstra and Hanson , ; Hijzen, Görg, and Hine ; Hummels et al ; Morrison Paul and Siegel ; Strauss‐Kahn ). The implications of offshoring for the demand for capital are less clear, however, with ambiguous results for R&D capital (Beladi, Marjit, and Yang ; Glass and Saggi ; Marjit and Mukherjee ) and little evidence on the relationship between offshoring and ICT capital (Abramovsky and Griffith ; Rasel )…”

Social media adoption in Italian firms. Opportunities and challenges for lagging regions

“…This has made significant modifications not only in social but also in economic relations, facilitating the flow of information intra‐ and inter‐firms, with suppliers and customers, and increasing access to potential markets (see Haller & Siedschlag, 2011). These new technologies are able to reduce spatial distances and help firms to gain visibility in cross‐border markets through the use of Internet‐based instruments such as, for example, websites and platforms (Bayo‐Moriones & Lera‐López, 2007; Cassetta et al, 2019; Galliano et al, 2001; Rasel, 2017). Nevertheless, the effect of the ICT revolution has been uneven both within countries and across borders and has increased divergence among economies (see Schivardi & Schmitz, 2020).…”

“…These new technologies are able to reduce spatial distances and help firms to gain visibility in cross-border markets through the use of Internet-based instruments such as, for example, websites and platforms (Bayo-Moriones & Lera-L opez, 2007;Cassetta et al, 2019;Galliano et al, 2001;Rasel, 2017). Nevertheless, the effect of the ICT revolution has been uneven both within countries and across borders and has increased divergence among economies (see Schivardi & Schmitz, 2020).…”

Digital knowledge generation and the appropriability trade-off

“…The use of ICT has in fact enabled to increase dramatically the geographic scope of the knowledge search, selection and absorption activities that are more and more conducted on global markets broadening the variety of possible knowledge suppliers and the opportunity to implement knowledge interactions nested with other transactions. The effects of ICT on the search capabilities of agents and their consequences in terms of the increased size of the choice set favor not only the global broadening of knowledge outsourcing, but also the increasing global offshoring with the selective localization of their knowledge intensive activities in knowledge intensive regions including in the recombinant generation of knowledge a variety of specialized based in remote sites (Abramovsky and Griffith, 2006;Rasel, 2017).…”