Note that it's the norm in the film industry. For a new movie project they'll peocure the element and people they need, do the movie and then disband.
In The Nature of the Firm [1] Ronald Coase wondered why companies didn't contract out instead of having employees and why indeed firms exist in the first place instead of using the movie industry system.
His answer was that there are transaction costs associated to using the market. There are also other costs such as search/informgation, bargaining, trade secrets,.. The costs of going to the market makes it less attractive. He got the Nobel Prize for that.
Internet lowers that cost and makes it possible where it was impossible before. It's definitely a new opportunity companies don't exploit.
In The Nature of the Firm [1] Ronald Coase wondered why companies didn't contract out instead of having employees and why indeed firms exist in the first place instead of using the movie industry system.
His answer was that there are transaction costs associated to using the market. There are also other costs such as search/informgation, bargaining, trade secrets,.. The costs of going to the market makes it less attractive. He got the Nobel Prize for that.
Internet lowers that cost and makes it possible where it was impossible before. It's definitely a new opportunity companies don't exploit.
Kaggle [2] does it for predictive modelling.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm [2] http://www.kaggle.com/competitions