Outsourcing, industrial organisation, and interfirm practices : sociological case studies from the Maltese experience 1970-2016

Abstract

This study focuses on the organisation of foreign direct investment in Malta with special attention to their transactional relations with Maltese-owned suppliers and subcontractors. The sociological diachronic case studies present a set of evolving scenarios involving two important exporters and nine small local enterprises. These scenarios enfold against the background of Malta’s economic development between 1970 and 2016. The studies are informed and in turn inform a number of theoretical issues in economic sociology, political economy, and the sociology of development. It opens the way for more extensive research of the overcoming of a classical dual economy with, on the one hand, traditional locally-owned firms producing or servicing the local market and on the other hand, modern and modernising foreign-owned companies driven by exports. Thus, this research contributes to the Industrial Organization of firms, to the Economic Sociology of the relationship between large firms and their supporting SMEs, and to the Economic Sociology of Development, by shedding light on the growth of linkages between FDI firms and indigenous enterprises in host countries.