国外营销论文精品Starting small in an unfamiliar environment.pdf

International Journal of Industrial Organization 21 (2003) 1021–1042 /locate/econbase S tarting small in an unfamiliar environment James E. Raucha,b , *, Joel Watsona aDepartment of Economics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0508, USA bNational Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Received 20 July 2001; received in revised form 21 November 2002; accepted 17 December 2002 Abstract We design a simple model of a developed country buyer’s search for a less developed country supplier and the subsequent relationship between the two parties. Matched firms can ‘start small’ with a trial order to gain information about the ability of the LDC supplier to successfully fill a large order. We show that the propensity for the buyer to start small increases with the cost of search for a new supplier and decreases with the probability that the current or new supplier can fulfill the large order successfully after training. We provide supportive empirical evidence for these and other results.  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification : L24; D83 Keywords : Outsourcing; Search; Technology Transfer; Uncertainty 1. Introduction Partnerships often begin in a state of uncertainty, where there is some doubt about the prospect of success. In such an environment, the partners may ‘start small’ by first attempting small-scale projects and then, if they are successful, graduating to larger ones. In this way, the parties structure their relationship in *Corresponding author. Tel.: 11-858-534-2405; fax: 11-858-534-7040. E-mail address: jrauch@ (J.E. Rau