Outsourcing

Outsourcing has become one of the key restructuring tools for companies seeking to boost their growth and business performance. As the outsourcing phenomenon has mushroomed so a range of academic studies have sought to define and describe a unifying theoretical model. Outsourcing: Design Process and Performance draws upon managerial economic sociological historical and psychological perspectives to bring about an understanding of how outsourcing design and the outsourcing process feed into the performance of firms. Blending empirical insights from a range of international cases and large-scale statistical tests with existing theoretical perspectives the author argues that a negative curvilinear relationship exists between outsourcing and firm performance. A critical analysis of current outsourcing strategies together with a discussion of future trends offers a new agenda for academic researchers and business managers alike.