The Dynamics of Outsourcing Relationships: Perspectives from Lead Firms and their Key Suppliers

We investigate the dynamics of outsourcing relationships via several longitudinal case studies involving lead firms and their key suppliers. The empirical context, represented by these dyads of lead firms/suppliers belonging to the Italian textile and mechanical industries, illustrates one particular configuration of the global factory model (Buckley & Ghauri, 2004; Buckley & Strange, 2015). Through a process approach and focusing on the outsourcing of manufacturing activities, we track the evolution of outsourcing relationships contributing to address a major research gap in strategic management and international business studies as to the evolution of the global factory. Different types of outsourcing dynamics emerge from our findings depicting alternative approaches in managing the relationship with key suppliers over tim