Gooris, JulienPeeters, Carine2019-01-142019-01-142014http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12127/6116This study shows that firms adjust the scope of activities entrusted to foreign services production units to adapt their knowledge and content protection strategy to the availability of strong legal protection or internal control mechanisms. We hypothesize and empirically confirm that, when the above mechanisms are not available, firms use the substitute protection mechanism of “fine-slicing” foreign value chain activities to exploit the complementarities that exist between tasks and reduce misappropriation hazard. We also find a positive moderating effect of firm country-specific experience and content value on the propensity to use the fine-slicing mechanism.enEntrepreneurship160952