Brief Description
This book was the first to examine the theory and practice of outsourcing and offshoring simultaneously.
Learn More about the Book
Global Outsourcing and Offshoring deals with some of the most fundamental structural and organizational issues facing many companies today. It considers two key strategic decisions, firstly Outsourcing: which activities or functions should be kept in-house versus outsourced; and Offshoring: in which nation is a particular function or operation best performed? These are interrelated and simultaneous decisions that are changing the spatial and organizational configuration of entire industries. The book integrates academic theories from diverse fields, including Economics, Strategy, and Industrial Organization. Contributions are drawn from scholars from 11 nations, who relate theory to practice in the pharmaceutical, automobile, medical records, appliances, human resource management, and telecommunications fields.
Review Quotes
1. This is an intriguing book. We have all heard about the rise of offshoring and outsourcing. Here, Contractor, Kumar, Kundu and Pedersen provide detailed and systematic evidence of how pervasive and invasive these trends have become. They also shed light on the consequences of offshoring and outsourcing for the strategies of multinational corporations, for the policymakers who seek to attract overseas investment, and for our academic theories that seek to understand the nature of foreign investment and the sources of competitive advantage. This book is thoroughly researched and well written. It presents a bold and thought-provoking set of ideas about the future shape and size of the multinational corporation.
Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategic and International Management, London Business School"
2. Global Outsourcing and Offshoring is a systematic and comprehensive volume on an increasingly important phenomenon. The editors have been able to assemble an impressive collection of studies ranging from theoretical to empirical contributions. The end result is a book that provides us with the state-of-the-art research on this subject, offering important hints and lessons for scholars, managers and policymakers worldwide.
Alfonso Gambardella, Professor of Economics and Management, Department of Management and KITeS, Bocconi University, Milan"
3. Globalization and technological revolution are the two most important factors transforming the world economy today. A direct result of these twin developments has been the organizational and spatial dispersion of activities in almost every company's value chain. This is and will remain a growing trend in terms of scale, scope, as well as the complexity of the activities that are now being outsourced and offshored. Scholars as well as managers must understand the factors that drive these trends and differentiate between those outsourcing and offshoring moves that enhance performance versus those which merely reflect the playing out of a herd mentality. This compilation of scholarly articles sheds much-needed light on this growing and extremely important phenomenon. The first chapter by the editors is a masterpiece and it alone is worth the price of admission.
Anil K. Gupta, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Strategy, INSEAD"
4. The contributors to this book explore how globalization has created the conditions for offshoring, which is found to be both efficient for firms and also welfare increasing for societies in both advanced and developing countries. The theoretical logic of the book is that the fine slicing of the value chain of the company provides the backbone for analysis of offshoring. Companies can improve their efficiency with an optimal allocation of its functions and operations across geographic space. This book will appeal to readers in the areas of international business, the legal environment of multinational enterprises, political economy and international economics.
Alan M. Rugman, Professor of International Business, Henley Business School, University of Reading"
