Global Outsourcing and Offshoring An Integrated Approach to Theory and Corporate Strategy

Companies are increasingly asking which of their value chain activities are best performed within their own company and which may be outsourced. In addition, they are also considering which pieces of their value chain may be better performed abroad. These interrelated decisions concerning outsourcing and offshoring have not only changed entire industries, they have also transformed the lives of people across the world. Hundreds of millions of jobs in emerging nations have been the direct result of outsourcing and offshoring decisions. At the same time, many people in the developed world have lost their jobs because a company has been able to find a cheaper alternative. Featuring contributions from scholars in eleven different countries, this book was the first to examine the theory and practice of outsourcing and offshoring simultaneously. It includes studies of a variety of different industries, including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, medical records, appliances, human resource management and telecommunications.

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Preface; Part I. Conceptual Frameworks and Theories: 1. Global outsourcing and offshoring: in search of the optimal configuration for a company Farok J. Contractor, Vikas Kumar, Torben Pedersen and Sumit Kundu; 2. Globalization of R&D: offshoring innovative activity to emerging economies Ashok Bardhan and Dwight Jaffee; 3. A theory of the outsourcing firm Dave Luvison and Mike Bendixen; Part II. The Offshoring and Outsourcing of R&D and Innovative Activities: 4. Blurring firm R&D boundaries: integrating transaction costs and knowledge-based perspectives Andrea Martinez-Noya and Esteban Garcia-Canal; 5. Outsourcing, fragmentation and integration: the pharmaceutical industry Janis K. Kapler and Kimberly A. Puhala; 6. Towards a better understanding of multinational enterprises' R&D location choices Ana Colovic; 7. Does R&D offshoring displace or strengthen knowledge production at home? Evidence from OECD countries Lucia Piscitello and Grazia D. Santangelo; 8. Innovation across firm boundaries: a knowledge based view Salma Alguezaui and Raffaele Filieri; 9. Suitable organization forms for knowledge management at various R&D functions in decentralized and cooperative R&D networks Hsing Hung Chen; Part III. Management Issues in Offshoring and Virtual Teamwork: 10. Changing work practices: acceptance of virtual work among knowledge professionals engaged in offshoring activities Elisa Mattarelli and Maria Rita Tagliaventi; 11. Managing globally disaggregated teams: the role of organizational politics Shahzad M. Ansari, Jatinder S. Sidhu, Henk W. Volberda and Ilan Oshri; Part IV. Empirical Analyses and Case Studies of Outsourcing and Offshoring: 12. Offshoring of high-value functions: a case study of US-India trade in medical transcription services Nir Kshetri and Nikhilesh Dholakia; 13. Offshoring of IT and business, professional and technical services: the recent experience of the United States Thomas J. Norman and Mahmood A. Zaidi; 14. Outsourcing human resource activities Thomas J. Norman; 15. Managing core outsourcing to address fast market growth: a study of an Indian mobile telecom service provider Raghunath Subramanyam; 16. Imitative offshoring strategies: lessons learnt from Italian small domestic appliance industry Gabriella Lojacono and Olga Annushkina; Index.

Featuring contributions from scholars in eleven different countries, this 2010 book was the first to examine the theory and practice of outsourcing and offshoring simultaneously. It includes studies of a variety of different industries, including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, medical records, appliances, human resource management and telecommunications.