ABSTRACT
Within the industrial production arena, there exists an extensive literature, both empirical and theoretical, that covers growth, productivity, efficiency and competition at different levels of aggregation. In recent years production research, as well as technology outsourcing, has expanded. The empirical evidence on the latter is very often based on aggregate country-or industry-level data, originating from industrial countries. While growth and competitiveness issues have mainly been applicable to country studies (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995), the productivity and efficiency studies are mainly micro-oriented (Bartelsman and Doms, 2000; Coelli et al., 1998; Fried et al., 1993; Hulten, 2000; Kumbhakar and Lovell, 2000). The latter issues are frequently used in performance studies heavily concentrated on the agriculture and manufacturing sectors and services. The growing importance of the service sector has induced increasing concern about its performance. In recent years the methods have intensively been used in the evaluation performance of private and public services foremost in provision of healthcare and education (see Balk, 1998; Berndt et al., 1992; Griliches, 1992; Griliches and Mairesse, 1993; Heshmati, 2003; Solow, 1992).
