Make or Buy Strategy of Firms in the U.S
基于交易成本经济学，研究了美国企业的自制或外购策略，发现内部供应商在质量、交货、成本和合作方面表现不佳，企业倾向于减少供应商数量并深化合作关系。
Transaction cost economics provides a theoretical framework for sourcing strategies. The paper discusses various sourcing strategy alternatives and an optimal sourcing strategy mix. The authors reviewed the buy or make strategy of U.S. firms carefully and evaluated empirical evidence. The study found that the performance of internal suppliers (make strategy) is disappointing in terms of quality, on-time delivery, cost and cooperation. Survey results including written comments indicate that firms in the U.S. reduce the number of suppliers and prefer to have single or dual suppliers. It appears that the customer-supplier relationship is deepening. INTRODUCTION Development of the right sourcing strategy in managing a firm's supply chain has become a very important task for today's managers. Managers now realize the importance of the long-term impact of their sourcing strategies on the profitability of the organization. Issues associated with the make or buy choice vary depending on theoretical perspectives. Recently, transaction cost economics has dealt with the issues and offers a good theoretical framework. According to transaction cost economics, the single most important factor in the make or buy choice is the transaction cost. The make choice loses the high-powered market incentives, but gains in making a proper level of investment for producing high quality and low cost supplies. The buy choice (outsourcing) utilizes high-powered market incentives. However, problems accompany the buy choice, such as under investment in assets required for high quality and low cost. Companies have recognized these problems and begun to address them. Prime manufacturing firms organize suppliers differently depending on the degree of asset specificity. Toyota Motor Company, for instance, divides purchased components into three groups according to their production technologies and financial ties: (1) general purchasing, (2) special purchasing, and (3) specialty factory purchasing (Nishguchi, 1994, p. 37). Components of general purchasing can be made by and brought in from any factory. Components of special purchasing, however, require a certain degree of facility and training, and components of specialty factory purchasing require special facilities. Toyota has established close capital and financial ties with those subcontractors offering specialty facilities. The organizational structure of suppliers takes different forms depending on the country in which companies are conducting business. The U.S. automobile companies have traditionally dealt with a large number of suppliers. General Motors, in its U.S. operations, used to have around 3500 suppliers, while only around 200 suppliers delivered directly to Toyota and Nissan. Toyota has organized suppliers into hierarchies. The suppliers on the first tier deal directly with the customer. The first tier suppliers deal with the second tier suppliers, who deal with the third tier suppliers. All of these suppliers form an association, and Toyota obtains competitive bidding from suppliers. Once a supplier is selected for a part production, the supplier supplies the part for the entire model period. U.S. auto companies have likewise been streamlining suppliers and moving towards organizing suppliers in recent years. Many firms in the U.S. now structure their suppliers in modular systems which reduces the number of suppliers they must deal with directly. This study examines business practices which offer some empirical evidence of transaction cost economization. The paper consists of four sections. We review theories on three strategic choices and develop a conceptual sourcing model in section II. Section III describes the methodology; survey results are presented in Section IV. Section V overviews the study and provides concluding discussions and suggestions for further study. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The question of make-or-buy was first examined by Ronald Coase (1937), who raises two questions in his paper: (1) Why, if by organizing one can eliminate certain costs and in fact reduce the cost of productions, are there any market transactions at all? …