The practice of buying goods and services from outside suppliers, rather than producing them within a firm. This is widespread among both firms and government agencies. Outsourcing may be used because specialist outside suppliers can apply more specialized skills, and can benefit from economies of scale or scope not available within the firm that make the product cheaper. It may also be used because adjusting output to variations in demand and maintaining the quality of inputs may be easier via enforcing contracts with outside suppliers than in dealing with a unionized internal workforce.