MANAGEMENT CONTROL AND TRUST IN OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS: AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE ON TRANSACTION COST

Abstract

Outsourcing is a form of strategic alliance whose application has increased in last decades. Therefore, the present investigation focuses on the study of projecting management control and the role of trust in outsourcing relationships. This paper examines Van der Meer-Kooistra and Vosselman’s (2000) model, based on the principles of Transaction Economic Cost, and the employment of the control mechanism and trust as control archetypes in a case study of companies belonging to the public sector, located in Spain and Venezuela, whose purpose is service provision, in the port and railway area, specifically, in the sector of infrastructure maintenance which is outsourced at the moment. Additionally, this study intends to increase the knowledge of management control design in the outsourcing relationships. By now, the present research (a doctoral thesis) has approached development of the theoretical objectives’ phase. As for the empirical application, the case study has been still being investigated, thus we cannot outline conclusions yet. Keywords: Management Control. Outsourcing. Trust. Economic theory of Transaction Cost.