Production Chain Organization in the Digital Age: Information Technology Use and Vertical Integration in U.S. Manufacturing
中文摘要
信息技术的进步可能影响生产活动的组织设计。借助互联网在美国的迅速扩散，我们评估生产链组织对这项信息技术接入与使用创新的敏感性。我们拓展了认识到下游转移（销售相对于采购）以及组织设计中多元治理重要性的企业理论，预测信息技术驱动的下游纵向一体化变动。在一个包含人口普查局逾5,600家制造工厂详细数据的面板中，我们同时观察到一个生产单位在企业内部的下游交易程度与同期对外部客户的销售——我们将这种组合称为多元销售。我们的主要发现是，将互联网用于外部协调导致整个制造业部门的下游纵向一体化显著下降。工具变量估计指向因果关系，但也表明存在异质性处理效应。多元组织的主要驱动因素，例如不同治理方式交易之间的互补性与约束，有助于解释这种异质性，内部生产管理信息技术的同期使用亦然。我们的研究是首个利用多元治理框架与大规模微观数据来理解美国生产链组织如何响应这一迅速而深远的技术变革的研究。
Abstract
Advances in information technology (IT) may affect the organizational design of production. Exploiting the rapid diffusion of the internet in the United States, we assess the sensitivity of production chain organization to this innovation in IT access and use. Extending theories of the firm that recognize the importance of downstream transfers (selling as opposed to sourcing) and plural governance in organizational design, we predict IT-driven shifts in downstream vertical integration. In a detailed panel of Census Bureau data for over 5,600 manufacturing plants, we observe the extent of a production unit’s downstream transactions within the firm alongside concurrent sales to external customers—a mix we refer to as plural selling. Our main finding is that the use of the internet for external coordination precipitated a significant decline in downstream vertical integration across the manufacturing sector. Instrumental variables estimation points to a causal relationship but also heterogeneous treatment effects. Key drivers of plural organization, such as complementarities and constraints across differently governed transactions, help explain such heterogeneity, as does concurrent use of internal production management IT. Our study is the first study to leverage a plural governance framework and large-scale microdata to understand how U.S. production chain organization shifted in response to this rapid and far-reaching technological change.