TY - JOUR
T1 - Offshoring technology innovation
T2 - A case study of rare-earth technology
AU - Fifarek, Brian J.
AU - Veloso, Francisco M.
AU - Davidson, Cliff I.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Mitchell Small and Pedro Oliveira for their constructive suggestions during the development of this research. The peer review comments of two anonymous reviewers are also greatly appreciated. This project was supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance, financial assistance from INMETCO, Inc., and funding from the NSF Division of Social and Economic Sciences grant SES-0451096.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - Many US firms are improving their individual competitiveness by offshoring manufacturing operations, services and, increasingly, knowledge work. Although research to date has maintained that these practices are beneficial to the offshoring firm and national economies, by reducing costs and expanding markets, little is known about the longer term effect of offshoring on the rate of innovation of home economies. This paper suggests that offshoring practices have adverse effects on innovation at the national home base. The analysis uses patents in the rare-earth element industry, a high-tech area which is among those that have evolved the furthest towards outsourcing and relocation away from the US and to developing countries. Looking at the rare-earth industry can provide insights in identifying potential long term impacts of offshoring on innovation because many other US industries are likely to adopt similar offshoring strategies.
AB - Many US firms are improving their individual competitiveness by offshoring manufacturing operations, services and, increasingly, knowledge work. Although research to date has maintained that these practices are beneficial to the offshoring firm and national economies, by reducing costs and expanding markets, little is known about the longer term effect of offshoring on the rate of innovation of home economies. This paper suggests that offshoring practices have adverse effects on innovation at the national home base. The analysis uses patents in the rare-earth element industry, a high-tech area which is among those that have evolved the furthest towards outsourcing and relocation away from the US and to developing countries. Looking at the rare-earth industry can provide insights in identifying potential long term impacts of offshoring on innovation because many other US industries are likely to adopt similar offshoring strategies.
KW - Innovation
KW - Offshoring
KW - Rare-earth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38949163275&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38949163275&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jom.2007.02.013
DO - 10.1016/j.jom.2007.02.013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:38949163275
SN - 0272-6963
VL - 26
SP - 222
EP - 238
JO - Journal of Operations Management
JF - Journal of Operations Management
IS - 2
ER -