Subcontracting and coordination of productive activities: The case of the garment sector in Thailand.

Summary This thesis confronts the theory of inter-firm relations with the reality of subcontracting relations in the Thai garment sector. The first chapter presents the sectoral (internationalization and vertical desintegration of production processes, international division of labor), historical (Thailand's industrialization process, economic policies) and socio-economic (geographic and sectoral distribution of activities, Thai labor market) contexts of subcontracting. The second chapter studies the actors and forms of the subcontracting relationship in the Thai garment sector, based on original fieldwork. A descriptive analysis of the survey data provides a detailed portrait of the entrepreneurs and firms. An economic exploitation of the individual survey data allows us to deepen certain dominant features of the subcontracting relationship. The third chapter considers subcontracting as a real mode of coordination. The third chapter considers subcontracting as a true mode of coordination. While the theory of subcontracting is similar to the hybrid form, the subcontracting relationships observed in Thailand refute this interpretation. We consider the subcontracting relationship as an incentive structure that can be modeled as a game. Despite the possibility of replaying the game and the eventuality of a cooperative outcome, these approaches show a number of limitations. The fourth chapter focuses on cooperation: subcontracting allows firms to align their production projects and create common resources. However, the geographical, social and cultural proximity of economic actors is essential for the establishment of such relationships. A dynamic perspective allows us to identify the factors explaining the emergence of districts, their evolution and their sustainability.