{"title":"A decision‐making approach for investigating the potential effects of near sourcing on supply chain","authors":"A. C. Cagliano, A. Marco, C. Rafele, M. Arese","doi":"10.1108/17538291211257574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211257574","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – Near sourcing is starting to be regarded as a valid alternative to global sourcing in order to leverage supply chain (SC) responsiveness and economic efficiency. The present work proposes a decision‐making approach developed in collaboration with a leading Italian retailer that was willing to turn the global store furniture procurement process into near sourcing.Design/methodology/approach – Action research is employed. The limitations of the traditional SC organisation and purchasing process of the company are first identified. On such basis, an inventory management model is applied to run spreadsheet estimates where different purchasing and SC management strategies are adopted to determine the solution providing the lowest cost performance. Finally, a risk analysis of the selected best SC arrangement is conducted and results are discussed.Findings – Switching from East Asian suppliers to continental vendors enables a SC reengineering that increases flexibility and responsiveness to demand unce...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"2007 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132575533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Aman, Noradiva Hamzah, Rozita Amiruddin, Ruhanita Maelah
{"title":"Transaction costs in finance and accounting offshore outsourcing: A case of Malaysia","authors":"A. Aman, Noradiva Hamzah, Rozita Amiruddin, Ruhanita Maelah","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221960","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – Finance and accounting (FA) offshore outsourcing is a growing trend involving a relocation of business processes to Asia but only few studies focus on understanding the issues that underlie the relocation of FA services. This paper aims to provide understanding of transaction costs economics (TCE) issues in FA offshore outsourcing using a case study of the Malaysia outsourcing industry which is growing and experiencing significant change.Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a qualitative case study approach. Interviews cover several foreign firms, which are based in Malaysia and involved in FA offshore outsourcing services worldwide. Interviews also include related regulatory bodies in Malaysia.Findings – Using TCE and management control theoretical framework, findings indicate issues and challenges faced by the firms and the need for contract management skills to mitigate the issues.Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to a broad discussion of FA offshore outsourci...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132266242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation returns from offshored IT R&D: a response article","authors":"I. Oshri","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221942","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – This paper aims to serve as a response to the article “Innovation returns from offshored IT R&D”.Design/methodology/approach – The paper highlights two aspects relating to captive centres and R&D offshoring: what R&D is offshored, and understanding foreign direct investment decisions in the context of captives.Findings – Many captive centres have gone through a complex evolutionary path during which they have evolved from a cost centre to become a profit centre. WNS and Genpact are just two examples of such behaviour. Such an approach, and in many cases a reality, should change our approach as to how we assess the returns on offshoring investment by simply taking into account the strategic intent behind such an investment.Originality/value – This article serves as a response to the research paper “Innovation returns from offshored IT R&D” by Datta and Bhattacharyya in this issue.","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"202 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125734642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation returns and the economics of offshored IT R&D","authors":"P. Datta, K. Bhattacharyya","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221933","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221933","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – How appropriate are the innovation returns from offshored information technology (IT) research and development (RD more importantly, too little and too much IT R&D investments fail to stimulate IT innovation returns to the investors.Findings – An analysis of 81 World Trade Organization (WTO) countries underscores the authors' argument that t...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124813755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prioritization of outsourcing risks from a systemic perspective","authors":"S. Gandhi, A. Gorod, B. Sauser","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221951","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – The purpose of this research is so that project managers can use a systemic approach to prioritizing the risks of outsourcing including an understanding of the external factors that could affect the prioritization.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was designed by the authors and distributed to 2,500 outsourcing professionals from different organizations and the hypotheses were tested using the data from these surveys. The logic for forming the hypothesis is discussed for each hypothesis and so are the demographics of the respondentsFindings – External factors such as the type of technology involved, type of market targeted, location of outsourcing and the amount of experience the outsourcing professional had, did affect the prioritization of the outsourcing risks. Furthermore, trends were identified among the ranking of the outsourcing risks.Research limitations/implications – One of the constraining factors of this research, as in the majority of empirical research initiatives, was the lim...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125607631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vested outsourcing: a flexible framework for collaborative outsourcing","authors":"K. Vitasek, K. Manrodt","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221924","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221924","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – Research and studies of successful, collaborative outsourcing relationships have uncovered commonalities that researchers codified into a methodology designed to structure aligned, innovative and cooperative outsourcing arrangements. This paper aims to describe a new methodology for establishing successful collaborative outsourcing relationships.Design/methodology/approach – The design is based on seven years of field research into successful strategic outsourcing agreements completed by the authors and additional colleagues.Findings – Research into successful collaborative outsourcing relationships has uncovered commonalities that researchers have identified as normative rules which, when followed, lead to aligned, innovative and cooperative relationships. This paper identifies five rules and ten elements that together form a flexible framework for implementing an effective outsourcing partnership. This approach is called “vested outsourcing” because the nature of most highly successful relatio...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121698191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I'm Working While They're Sleeping: Time Zone Separation Challenges and Solutions","authors":"E. Beulen","doi":"10.1108/17538291211221979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291211221979","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123489846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An exploratory study on job and demographic attributes affecting employee satisfaction in the Indian BPO industry","authors":"S. Sengupta","doi":"10.1108/17538291111185467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291111185467","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in India has always been characterized by ungodly hours, monotonous job, low perceived value, dispirited efficiency resulting to high attrition level. Notwithstanding the ever rising attrition rate, it has become critical for the companies to satisfy their employees in order to retain them. The purpose of this paper is to determine what and how job‐related and demographic variables are associated with employee satisfaction of the BPO employees.Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from 500 middle level BPO employees was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. T‐tests and Duncan's post hoc tests were done to compare the various dimensions of employee satisfaction across selected demographic variables such as gender, marital status, education, age and tenure. Correlation was done to find out the relationship between employee satisfaction and various job characteristics as well as demographic variables and finally, regression was done to find out the actual ...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128351398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Use of shift work in globally distributed software development: Sri Lankan IT professionals' perspective","authors":"V. Wickramasinghe, Chandana De Silva","doi":"10.1108/17538291111185458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291111185458","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore information technology (IT) professionals' perception towards shift‐based work pattern used by globally distributed software development (GDSD) firms in Sri Lanka, in terms of the effects of shift work on them and strategies they used to cope with shift work.Design/methodology/approach – A self‐administered survey questionnaire was chosen as the mode for data collection. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used for data analysis.Findings – The findings led to identifying the characteristics of shift work environment, benefits and drawbacks of shift work for IT professionals, strategies used by IT professionals to cope with shift work, and their overall evaluation of the shift work environment.Research limitations/implications – The results of the questionnaire survey provided access to breadth of experience. If qualitative data had also been obtained they could have provided depth by adding insight and substance to the questionnaire survey.Prac...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"R-36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126542922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Factors influencing the outsourcing decisions: a study of the banking sector in India","authors":"R. Jain, R. Natarajan","doi":"10.1108/17538291111185485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/17538291111185485","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose – This paper is an empirical study of outsourcing practices in the banking sector in India. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the impact of factors which influence the decision makers' attitude towards outsourcing.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a review of the existing literature, an attitudinal model of outsourcing was developed. This model was used to: identify the key factors of benefits, risks, roadblocks, and criticality of outsourcing; develop the instrument to measure the factors; and formulate hypotheses concerning the impact of these factors. The constructs in the instrument that measured these factors were validated by factor analysis.Findings – The impacts of perceived benefits, perceived roadblocks, and perceived criticality on the attitudes towards outsourcing were found to be strong and statistically significant. The impact of perceived risk was weak and statistically insignificant. The model explaining the combined impact of these four factors on outsourcing attitud...","PeriodicalId":319712,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116994220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}