Assessing the Social Development Potential of Impact Sourcing

Abstract

Impact Sourcing is an emerging sub-field of global Information Technology (IT) and business Process Outsourcing (BPO) rooted in the concept of business and social development coexistence (Falck & Heblich, 2007; Porter & Kramer, 2011). It claims to create employment opportunities through Information Communications Technology (ICT) outsourcing for marginalized people living in areas of limited employment opportunities (The Monitor Group, 2011). This paper reports on a multidisciplinary research project, linking Information Systems, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ICT for Development (ICT4D) and the Development literature. The primary research objective is to assess the social development impacts of a commercial outsourcing organization which practices Impact Sourcing as its CSR to provide employment opportunities to marginalized rural women through ICT. To achieve this objective, the research draws on Amartya Sen's Capability Approach (Sen, 1999) from the development literature as a guiding framework. Social development impacts of Impact Sourcing are analysed in terms of enabled capabilities of marginalized outsourcing employees.