Beyond Offshore Outsourcing of Business Services

Abstract

In this special issue, contributors seek to embark on new trajectories in the offshore outsourcing debate. Park and Hollinshead explore the ‘genealogy’ of offshore out- sourcing activity of a ‘flagship’ US financial services institution since the mid-1990s, observing a progressive diminution of the ‘centre’ of the business, and growing complexity and sophistication in the company’s approach to externalizing business functions on a widespread geographical basis... Chadee, Raman and Michailova engage in an overdue examination of the factors that promote competitiveness among offshore service providers (OSPs). Conducting empirical investigation among leading OSPs in India, it is found that such providers draw their competitiveness from their possession of superior human capital combined with effective knowledge management processes and ability to leverage relational capital and follow a quality-based strategy... Raj-Reichert brings to the fore the challenges and complexities associated with seeking to regulate and harmonize social, environmental and other conditions in global production networks (GPNs). Drawing upon extensive empirical investigation of electronics industry manufacturing sites in Penang, Malaysia, the paper describes how the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) came into being, and how inter-firm and non firm relationships shape GPN governance outcomes... Gupta offers an explicitly practitioner-orientated perspective on process re- engineering in the financial services industry. As a leading and influential exponent of new operating models within the sector, this author provides a ‘best practice’ formulation which holds that moves towards ‘componentizing’ business activities and functions should be multifaceted and ‘fit for purpose’.