Univ., Diss.--Passau, 2002.

Zugl.: Chemnitz, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Diss. Univ. Bayreuth 2003.

Combining concepts regarding the make-or-buy decision, such as Williamson’s (1981) ideas on transaction costs in conjunction with theories of supply chain management, the thesis outlines what factors should be of importance to firms when deciding to make or buy certain processes within the supply chain. Using Porter’s (1985) division of the supply chain into 5 sections we analyze the make-or-buy decisions of Catamaran Sports/Adidas sailing, finding that while many decisions taken match the theory-based predictions, a lot of processes are handled the way they are because of external constraints faced by the firm. In the case of Adidas their main reason for taking certain strategic decisions are to maintain their competitive advantage in the market, which they build on a benefit leadership strategy. This has resulted in them often choosing a production method that has a relatively high accounting cost, compared to what could have been achieved, in order to maintain flexibility, reduce lead times and provide a higher level of service.

Byggbranschen är en av de branscher som har störst problem med tomma lastbilstransporter. Detta då lastbilen ofta kör fullastad till byggplats men utan last under returtransporten, vilket är negativt för ekonomin och framförallt för miljön. Ett företag i byggbranschen som arbetar för att minska sina tomma returtransporter är hustillverkaren Eksjöhus. För att minska dessa hämtar företaget regelbundet material till husproduktionen i samband med returtransporten. I denna studie undersöks om detta tillvägagångssätt är det bästa, eller om de bör outsourca materialhämtningen. För att ta reda på vilket alternativ som är mest fördelaktigt är studiens syftet att ta reda på vilka faktorer företag behöver ta hänsyn till i beslutet kring make or buy, om de bör outsourca eller insourca en företagsfunktion. I teoridelen presenteras tre övergripande områden, vilka är returtransporter, outsourcing och insourcing. För att utvärdera möjliga utfall och besluta vilket alternativ som är det bästa används en total relationskostnadsanalys. De slutsatser som dras är att företag inte enbart kan ta hänsyn till ekonomiska faktorer i sitt outsourcingbeslut. Företag måste även beakta andra faktorer i beslutet, detta är dock väldigt företags- och situationsspecifikt. I detta fall bör Eksjöhus ta hänsyn till kundnöjdhet, service, risker, tid och miljö. Utifrån dessa rekommenderas Eksjöhus att outsourca sin materialhämtning till en extern part, men för att undvika tomma transporter bör de ta hjälp av digitala lösningar som kan matcha lämpligt gods med returtransporten. / One of the industries that has major problems with empty running, is the construction industry. Empty running adversely affects the environment and the economy negatively due to an empty backhaul. A company in the construction industry that works to reduce their empty runs is the house manufacturer Eksjöhus. To reduce these, the company regularly collects material for the house production in connection with the return transport. In this study, it is examined whether this approach is the best, or whether they should outsource the material retrieval. To find out which option that is the most advantageous, the study's purpose is to examine which factors companies need to take into account in their make or buy decision, if they should outsource or insource a company function. Three general areas are presented, which are backhaul, outsourcing and insourcing. To evaluate possible outcomes and decide which option is best, a total relationship cost analysis is used. The conclusions drawn, are that companies cannot only take economic factors into account in their outsourcing decision. Companies also need to consider other factors in their decision making, and these factors depends on the specific company and situation. In this case, Eksjöhus should consider customer satisfaction, service, risk, time and environment in their decision making. Therefore Eksjöhus is recommended to outsource the material collection to an external party, but in order to avoid empty transport, they should use digital solutions that can match suitable goods with the return transport.

Firms often stand before decisions on whether to make or buy components. Various well-established theories that have been applied and developed to understand make or buy decisions have also been critiqued for not generating a well-based decision basis. Research indicates that make or buy decisions are more complex than most theories suggest and that theories within make or buy don’t seem to account for situations when the production technology does not exist in-house. In instances of new technology, in this case metal AM, there is a need to understand and account for the case specific attributes to determine the best course of action. This study explores the decision situation of invest to perform internally versus outsourcing of metal additive manufacturing. The aim is to investigate and identify what factors affect the decision. The research design is a qualitative exploratory case study including 10 interviews and a cost analysis of two products, to answer how metal additive manufacturing affects these decisions. The cost analysis is included, as economic performance is a factor of importance, which makes it meaningful to understand in such situations. The most prominent factors in the result are found to be competency, control, economy, interaction, organization and strategy. The results of the study indicate overlapping similarities of the results through existing theories and suggest that these decisions are more complex than the individual application of single theories. However, the cost analysis shows that the currently held outsourcing alternative is more expensive and this might indicate a non-rational decision in regards to the financial perspective. The main contribution of this study is to the field of decision-making with the conclusion of that individual theories are not sufficient to explain the phenomenon of invest to perform internally versus outsourcing. To evaluate these decisions, the results indicate the necessity to have a multi-criteria approach and include several theoretical perspectives.

Cette thèse porte sur les spécificités du secteur public et leurs impacts sur les incitations et la performance. Elle mobilise les outils microéconomiques de la théorie des contrats et l’analyse économétrique. Parmi ces caractéristiques, une attention particulière est portée sur les problématiques de surveillance, de gestion de l’information et de contraintes budgétaires. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse contribue au débat sur la transparence dans le secteur public en considérant l’une de ses caractéristiques majeure : un budget limité. Cette question est étudiée comme un problème de design informationnel et utilise un modèle principal agent sous aléa moral pour montrer que la transparence a plus de chance d’être sélectionnée par le principal lorsque que le budget disponible et la valeur de la tache sont faibles. Le deuxième chapitre s’attache à offrir une nouvelle explication théorique à l’intuition associant un accroissement de la pression bureaucratique à une baisse de la qualité. Dans ce but, l’idée d’«extra-mile» est introduite dans un modèle principal agent classique sous aléa-moral. Le management bureaucratique est caractérisé par l’introduction d’une procédure définie comme l’association d’une codification et d’une vérification. Une telle procédure permet une vérification plus précise de l’action de l’agent mais est source d’inefficience sociale. Le dernier chapitre, dans une démarche théorique et empirique, propose une nouvelle explication de la différence des prix de l’eau en France en se fondant sur des arguments organisationnels. / This thesis focuses on the structural specificities of the public sector and how they impact incentives and performance. It uses the microeconomic tools of contract theory and econometric analysis. Among these characteristics, special attention is paid to monitoring, information management and budget constraints by applying a theoretical lens, that allows to provide new insights into the incentive systems in place in the public sector. The first chapter contributes to the debate on transparency in the public sector by considering one of its major features, i.e. a limited budget. This issue is studied as an information design problem and employ a principal-agent model with moral hazard to show that if the principal has to choose between total transparency and total opacity, then transparency is more likely to be optimal when tasks are least valuable and budgets are lowest. The second chapter aims at capturing a new theoretical explanation for the widespread intuition that more bureaucracy could lead to less effort and quality despite improved control. To that end, the idea of “the extra mile” is introduced in a classic principal-agent model with moral hazard. Bureaucratic management is characterized by the use of procedures, defined as the association of codification and verification. A procedure allows for more accurate verification of the agent’s action, but is socially inefficient. In the third chapter, using both theory and regression analysis, we propose a new explanation for price differences in the French water industry based on organizational arguments.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Dennis L. Weisman / Mandatory network unbundling is one of the foremost topics in regulatory economics today. The concept has crucial importance in the deregulation of many previously regulated industries including telecommunications, gas, electricity and railroads. Moreover, the topic has emerged as one of the more prominent issues associated with the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunication Act in the United States. Upon initial examination, establishing the correct costing standards and/or determining the correct input prices would seem important for sending the correct price signals to the entrants for their efficient make-or-buy decisions. Sappington (AER, 2005) uses a standard Hotelling location model to show that input prices are irrelevant for an entrant’s make or buy decision. In this first essay, we show that this result is closely related to the degree of product differentiation when firms are engaged in price competition. Specifically, it is shown that input prices are irrelevant when firms produce homogeneous products, but are relevant for make-or-buy decisions when the entrant and incumbent produce differentiated products. These results suggest that, in general, it is important for regulators to set correct prices in order to not distort the entrants’ efficient make-or-buy decisions. The second essay investigates optimal access charges when the downstream markets are imperfectly competitive. Optimal access charges have been examined in the literature mainly under the condition where only the incumbent has market power. However, network industries tend to exhibit an oligopolistic market structure. Therefore, the optimal access charge under imperfect competition is an important consideration when regulators determine access charges. This essay investigates some general principles for setting optimal access charges when downstream markets are imperfectly competitive. One of the primary objectives of this essay is to show the importance of the break-even constraint when first-best access charges are not feasible. Specifically, we show that when the first-best access charges are not feasible, the imposition of the break-even constraint on only the upstream profit of the incumbent is superior to the case where break-even constraint applies to overall incumbent profit, where the latter is the most commonly used constraint in the access pricing literature. Bypass and its implications for optimal access charges and welfare are also explored. The third essay is empirical in nature and investigates two primary issues, both relating to unbundled network element (UNE) prices. First, as Crandall, Ingraham, and Singer (2004) suggested, we will empirically test the stepping stone hypothesis using a state-level data set that spans multiple years. To do this, we will explore the effect of UNE prices on facilities-based entry. Second, in light of those findings, we will investigate whether the form of regulation (e.g. price cap and rate of return regulation) endogenously affects the regulator’s behavior with respect to competitive entry. Lehman and Weisman (2000) found evidence that regulators in price cap jurisdictions tend to set more liberal terms of entry in comparison with regulators in rate-of-return jurisdictions. This paper investigates whether their result is robust to various changes in modeling, including specification and econometric techniques.

Zugl.: Weimar, Bauhausuniv., Diss.

Univ., Diss.--Paderborn, 2002.