Integration, industrial linkages and production subcontracting: an overview

Abstract

The literature is replete with works on integration, industrial linkages and production subcontracting. This paper takes an overview of the literature on these all important aspects of the operations of industrial activities. Whereas, integration involves all forms of collaborative and co-operative ventures among industrial organizations over space, industrial linkages takes the form of purchases of inputs of goods or services from, or sales of output to another manufacturing firm which may include all forms of contacts and flows of information and/or materials between two or more individual firms which could either be vertical or horizontal in nature, and which may vary with the scale of operations and facilitated by certain basic factors. Production subcontracting pertains to the breaking down of production process into smaller units by firms which has become a major strategy of corporate organizations whereby part of a firm's production is handled by other independent firms in a chain of production.