Organisational design alternatives within international operations networks: a transaction cost perspective

Abstract

This paper shows, through multiple case studies of Moroccan textile apparel offshore factories, that one organisational design does not fit all within international operations networks. Whereas previous research about managing networks of foreign factories has focused on fully owned production affiliates, a considerable diversity of organisational arrangements is shown to exist. Analysed in the light of transaction cost theory, this diversity suggests that the cost of co-ordination of foreign factories operating in culturally different countries is high, and has possibly been overlooked in international operations management research. As this paper is primarily a piece of exploratory research, its aim is to document the hybrid arrangements, between markets and hierarchies, that are used by multinationals to cope with co-ordination costs in practice. Moreover, the potential of "supply chain outposts" as an organisational innovation used to cope with high co-ordination requirements is highlighted.

Group technology: Amalgamation with design of organisational structures

“…Another strand of literature focuses on the design of manufacturing networks (for instance Leseure, 2010); however, this stream is considered irrelevant for the context of the current study, because the focal point is the design of operations in a single firm. Even for specific sectors the paucity of works on organisational design has been mentioned.…”

The Adopting of Markov Analysis to Forecast the Operations Competitive Advantages of Mobile Phone Service Providers: The Case of Jordan

“…Skinner, 1969Skinner, , 1974Wheelwright, 1984;Hill, 1995;Ward et al, 1996;Lee et al, 2007;Leseure, 2010;Paiva and Vieira, 2011). Further, these studies have not investigated the proposed future changes in the operations competitive capabilities.…”

“…The majority of research contribution is concentrated on reporting the operations competitive priorities (e.g. Wheelwright, 1984;Hill, 1995;Ward et al, 1996;Lee et al, 2007;Leseure, 2010;Paiva and Vieira, 2011). Reporting the forecasted operations competitive advantages is very important since the operations are the milestone for any organizations.…”