Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Services offshoring'

Tématem mé práce je offshoring v sektoru služeb ve Spojených státech amerických. Offshoring je proces, při kterém jsou rozděleny jednolivé části produkce a některé z nich jsou pak přesunuty do zahraničí. Většinou je motivací k offshoringu snižování nákladů. Offshoring může být spojen s outsourcingem, tj. zajištěním služby nebo výrobku externím dodavatelem. Ve své práci prezentuji teoretické přístupy k offshoringu a outsourcingu a platnost jejich závěrů zkoumám na datech ze sektoru služeb Spojených států amerických. Zaměřila jsem se na služby z kategorie informačních a komunikačních technologií, administrativních služeb poskytovaných firmám a výzkumu a vývoje. Analyzuji zejména data o produkci, produktivitě, zaměstnanosti a mezinárodním obchodě. Poslední část mé práce je analýzou americké vládní politiky zaměřené na negativní dopady offshoringu v sektoru zpracovatelského průmyslu. Zkoumám, je-li účelné takovou politiku zavádět také pro sektor služeb.

Magister Economicae - MEcon
Throughout its development, trade has been regarded as a vital component of economic growth and development. Both theoretical and empirical studies consider international trade to be a major determinant of the growth of any economy. International trade in services has been rising ever since trade in services was incorporated into international trade agreements after the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994. This, coupled with the ever-improving state of technological innovation, has made services trade an important aspect of the development agenda of most countries. However, just like any other endeavour, offshoring of services has both opportunities as well as threats. The study examines two research questions relating to the growth-enhancing impact of South Africa’s exports and imports of services. Firstly, the study examines the contribution of services exports to economic growth in South Africa. Secondly, the study determines the impact that imported services has had on South Africa’s economic growth. In spite of the global rise of trade in services, South Africa’s export of services accounts for only 14 percent of total exports, while the import of services constitutes 20 percent of total imports. Using quarterly time series data for the period 1980 to 2012, the study adopts the ordinary least squares method to estimate the contribution of both exports and imports to output expansion within an aggregation production function setup. The empirical results show that the export of services influences influence South Africa’s economic growth significantly in both the long-run and the short-run. While the relationship is positive in the long-run, it is negative in the short-run. The results also indicate that the import of services significantly and positively affects real output growth in both the long-run and the short-run.

Background: Development of technologies and worldwide reductions of trade barriers during the last decades increased competition and the need to offer high-quality prod-ucts and services for a reasonable price. Particularly, the service sector increased in size and variety of outputs. The development of the information technology segment has de-termined the market environment. To be able to compete in this global market offshore outsourcing of IT functions can be a valuable tool if handled in the right way. Small and medium sized enterprises can profit from service offshore outsourcing although studies show that this type of organizations fail in their outsourcing initiatives in an above aver-age rate as a result of deficits in risk management, precisely in risk identification. Aim: The aim of this Master Thesis is to analyse the specific characteristics of small and medium sized enterprises in order to find out how they impact the different stages of the service offshore outsourcing process. Theory and empirical data helps to spot strengths and weaknesses of these organizations in order to find a solution to a better risk identification process which then might lead to increased success in offshore out-sourcing of services. Definitions: Service offshore outsourcing refers to the purchase of a service (which may have been produced in-house before) by a firm from a supplier located in a differ-ent country while the supplier and buyer keep their respective initial locations. Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity leads to an undesirable outcome. Risk iden-tification, the first part of risk management (followed by risk assessment and prioritiza-tion), is defined as an analysis of potential risk factors to the success of an endeavour. Completion and results: Specific characteristics of small and medium sized enterprises play a significant role in the risk identification process of service offshore outsourcing. By being aware of these risks and acting according to minimize them, harm can be pre-vented. Especially, a well-designed service offshore outsourcing contract, regular com-munication and personal relationships could be an advantage to overcome the draw-backs of small size, high dependency, need for flexibility and lack of resources.

Characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence service quality perception and customer satisfaction. This inquiry investigates this claim by analysing a multinational company’s call centre servicing two markets across national borders. Hypotheses are derived which relate the cultural and customer characteristics of age, gender and socio-economic status to customer satisfaction and perceived service quality within each country.Using multiple regression and CHAID models as well as Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, the hypotheses are tested by analysing call centre service feedback data on 245 customers in the South African and 201 customers in the British market. Empirical support for the effect of national culture on perceived service quality and customer satisfaction is found.Empirical proof that females report higher levels of satisfaction than males is found while the importance customers place on service quality constructs are proven to vary by age and gender. A call centre management model integrating culture and customer characteristics, which provides a richer perspective of the mechanics of value creation, is suggested.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

Le phénomène de délocalisation des services est de plus en plus prégnant avec le développement des technologies d'information et de communication. Mais aussi avec l'avènement de la modularisation au sein du processus de production. Ce phénomène consiste à transférer la réalisation d'un ou de plusieurs modules d'une activité de service du pays d'origine vers un autre pays hôte. Le choix de délocaliser vers un pays d'accueil signifie que ce dernier présente de meilleurs caractéristiques pays pour le service à produire. En outre, les destinations retenues dépendent du type de service à délocaliser. Deux aspects à savoir l'intensité en connaissance et le degré de désintégration définissent le type de service. Les pays en voie de développement renforcent les caractéristiques pays afin d'améliorer leur capacité d'accueil. Ce sont les caractéristiques pays essentiels à l'accueil de services et les caractéristiques pays indispensables pour certains types de service. Les caractéristiques pays essentiels à l'accueil de services sont ceux que les pays en voie de développement doivent présenter pour être plus avantageuses que les pays de départ. Quant aux caractéristiques pays indispensables pour certains types de service, il s'agit des caractéristiques pays qui assurent la primauté sur certains services selon leurs spécificités. D'où notre interrogation sur le potentiel de délocalisation de chaque activité de service en fonction des spécificités. Nous essayons également de déterminer la destination appropriée pour chaque type de service tout en se concentrant sur la concordance entre ces spécificités de services et les caractéristiques des pays d'accueil
The service offshoring phenomenon is significant, supported by the development of information and communication technologies. But also with the advent of modularization in the production process. This phenomenon consists in the transfer of the realization of one or more modules of a service activity from the country of origin to the host country. Choosing a host country means that this country shows the best country characteristics for the production of the service. Two aspects which are the knowledge intensity and the disintegration degree define the service type. So, the destinations retained depend on the type of the service to offshore. The developing countries strengthen their country characteristics in order to improve their host capacity. These are the crucial country characteristics to receive services and the essential country characteristics for certain type of services. The crucial country characteristics are those that the developing countries should have to be more profitable than the countries of origin. Concerning the essential country characteristics for different type of services, it suggests that some country characteristics advantage certain services depending on their features. That is why our argument is on the offshoring potential of each service activity based on their features. We also try to determine the suited destination for each service type by taking into account the link between the service features and the host country characteristics

Companies that engage in captive offshoring activities as part of their strategic decisions, experience “known and unknown” hidden costs during its implementation influencing a firm’s performance. In this sense, analyzing the hidden costs of the knowledge transfer from different managerial levels and perspectives contributes to conceptualize and enrich the OS literature from the experience of a case study. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the hidden costs in the knowledge transfer as part of the OS implementation from a multi-level managerial perspective. This research has a qualitative methodology and as a research strategy the authors choose interviews that were performed online. The interviews consists of 8 managers from different levels. The findings show that managers from different levels have identified key aspects of the “known and unknown” hidden costs in the knowledge transfer within the micro-level during the OS implementation towards improving outcomes expectations. Communication has been found as a critical factor for the knowledge flow representing the main constraint of an efficient transfer of tacit knowledge in which international projects are influenced by high cultural, language gaps, and geographical distance. Unknown hidden cost was reflected in an unexpected high turnover and limited time frame.

This research investigates political risk in the context of service offshoring and the corresponding impact on risk management decisions. The first stage of the study uses the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), to explore key post-contract political risks experiences within offshore outsourcing activities. Twelve key political risks affecting offshore outsourcing decisions are identified, and the moderating effect of offshoring activity types (BPO, ITO or KPO) on political risk exposure and impact perceptions is highlighted. The research also explores the conditioning effect of industry specific exposure to political risk and enhances the explanatory ability of the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) constructs, offering a re-operationalization of the political risk component of external uncertainty. The second stage of the research introduces a series of hypotheses between offshoring flows and political risk profiles, and applies multiple regression to analyse political risk affecting offshore activities in low cost countries across contract-based offshoring engagements and FDI. The findings highlight that political risk is a genuine business concern for offshore contract-based outsourcing modalities, and identify concerns with Intellectual Property protection, Quality of Bureaucracy and Corruption as key considerations affecting location decisions in low-cost countries. The research further suggests a positive relationship between strong country level institutional and regulatory systems and high knowledge content in offshoring engagements. From a practical perspective, the research highlights the need for managerial tools to determine diversified firm and industry specific political risk impact on global service outsourcing engagements. The key practical contribution is the development of differentiated political risk typologies that can capture the nuances of external risks in offshoring, allowing for more accurate risk assessment of offshoring decisions.

More than half of information technology (IT) outsourced projects fail, primarily due to a lack of effective management practices surrounding the outsourcing end-to-end process. Ineffective management of the IT outsourcing (ITO) process affects organizations in the form of higher than expected project costs, including greater vendor switching or reintegration costs, poor quality, and loss of profits. These effects indicate that some business leaders lack the strategies to effectively manage the ITO process. The purpose of this single-case study was to apply the transaction cost economics (TCE) theory to explore strategies 5 business professionals use to manage an ITO project in a financial services organization located in the Midwestern region of the United States. Participant selection was purposeful and was based on the integral role the participants play on the ITO project. Data collection occurred via face-to-face semistructured interviews with the participants and the review of company documents. Data were analyzed using inductive coding of phrases, word frequency searches, and theme interpretation. Three themes emerged: vendor governance and oversight, collaborative strategic partnership, and risk management strategies enabled effective management of ITO. Identifying and executing appropriate outsourcing strategies may contribute to social change by improving outsourcing infrastructure, which might support job creation; increasing standards of living, especially within emerging markets; and heightening awareness of different cultures, norms, and languages among people living in different regions around the world to establish commonalities and gain alignment with business practices.

Cette thèse analyse les stratégies des firmes multinationales dans leurs différentes dimensions et évalue leur effet sur les consommateurs et travailleurs. Les essaies consécutifs s'intéressent aux choix d'expansion des FMNs, leur décision de délocalisation de production, leurs stratégies de l'investissement direct à l'étranger (IDE) au niveau agrégé, ainsi que les pratiques de la discrimination de prix sur les marchés aux fortes inégalités de revenu
This thesis examines both theoretically and empirically strategies of multinational firms in their various dimensions and evaluates their impact on consumers and workers. The following essays look at MNEs' product expansion choices, their production localization decisions, foreign direct investment strategies (FOI) at the aggregate level and, finally, price discrimination practices on more unequal markets

Western countries' information technology and software intensive firms are increasingly producing software and IT services in developing countries. With this swift advancement in offshoring, there are many issues that can be investigated which will enable companies to maximize their benefits from offshoring. However, significant challenges can occur throughout the lifecycle of offshoring IT service projects that turn the potential benefits into losses. This research investigated CMM/CMMI best practices and their effects on managing and mitigating critical issues associated with offshore development. Using a web based survey, data was collected from 451 Information Technology and software development firms in the US. The survey instrument was validated by an expert panel which included practitioners and researchers. The survey population consisted of Information Technology and software engineering managers who work on offshore IT and software development projects. Statistical methods including Chi Square and Cramer's V were used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the analysis show that IT companies applying CMM/CMMI models have fewer issues associated with IT offshoring. When US IT companies utilize and incorporate different practices from TSP and People CMM into CMMI for DEV/SVC and CMMI for ACQ, they have fewer offshoring issues related to language barriers and cultural differences. The results of this research contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the offshoring of IT services from the client management perspective and provide practitioners with increased knowledge regarding IT offshoring decisions.

This thesis focuses on how companies in Sweden should manage the processes of offshore outsourcing IT services to low-cost locations, but also how they should manage the planning and accomplishment to achieve their goals and the expected result in a good way. The thesis states that companies in Sweden need to put a lot of effort into planning and research considering potential location and vendor. Different aspects and phases of the offshoring processes will be stated, discussed and analyzed concerning a fictive

company called AbcIT. A visualization of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats is presented by a SWOT analysis regarding offshore outsourcing of IT-services to India.

Denna uppsats fokuserar på hur företag i Sverige skall gå tillväga när de överväger offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till lågkostnadsländer, hur de ska genomföra planeringsarbete och genomförande för att på bästa sätt uppnå både mål och resultat. I uppsatsen konstateras att företag i Sverige behöver lägga stor vikt vid planering och förundersökning av framtida område och affärspartner. Olika faktorer och delar av offshoringprocessen tas upp, diskuteras och analyseras med hjälp av det fiktiva företaget AbcIT. En SWOT-analys visualiserar interna styrkor och svagheter samt externa möjligheter och hot vid offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till Indien.

With the increased demand for doing more with less, public sector managers embrace outsourcing back-office functions through a shared service model; however, maintaining service quality for public sector shared service centers (SSC) in financial management during peak cycles is a challenge. Framed with the transaction cost economy theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by SSC managers in a public sector company to maintain service quality. Seven participants with more than 4 years of SSC experience in public-sector companies participated in phone interviews including SSC department heads, managers, and a supervisor of a public-sector company in Mississippi who implemented strategies to successfully maintain service quality in the SSC relationship. Through method triangulation, a review of service level agreements and key performance indicators supplemented open-ended semistructured interviews. The research findings included emergent themes of training and documentation, employee engagement, control and communication, efficiency and automation, and standardization and metrics. The SSC strategies in training and documentation, control and communication, and employee engagement were fundamental for maintaining service quality in SSC relationship. Study findings may help public sector SSC managers understand how to incorporate and implement successful strategies in financial management divisions to maintain service quality. Positive social change includes identifying methods to increased efficiency and service quality in a financial management division. Society could benefit from improvements in employee work-life balance, reduced turnover, and increases in the economic well-being of community residents.

Rise of offshoring services to developing countries has led to the participation of small offshoring services providers in the global value chains. Many inter-disciplinary researches have understood whether participation in global value chains (GVCs) leads to beneficial outcomes for small suppliers. However, the institutional dynamics that may hamper or support small supplier upgrading has not received much attention. This is especially true for small offshoring services providers (OSPs) who are operating in an adverse institutional environment represented by low quality institutions, political instability, and political conflicts. Taking an offshoring service provider’s (OSP) perspective, this paper aims to understand the how Pakistani OSPs bypass/address the challenges of upgrading and move to significant positions in global value chains. Anchoring this work in the relational economic geography, global value chain, and international business, an analytical framework is developed based upon three conceptual building blocks: Upgrading challenges, strategic responses, and upgrading. The thesis adopts qualitative interview technique to collect data from seventeen Pakistani OSPs. The textual data which is interpreted using template analysis technique shows that some Pakistani OSPs demonstrate ‘resilient’ strategies to upgrade in GVCs. The differences in the resilience of OSPs are dependent upon a) level of responsiveness of OSPs to cope with all or some of the upgrading challenges, b) to adapt the changing demands of GVCs. It is understood that OSPs showing high level of responsiveness and adaptation are able to truly upgrade in global value chain by gaining legitimacy in GVCs for their ability to successfully meet GVC conventions and legitimise operation in an adverse economy.

This dissertation thesis examines key aspects of a shared service center concept within an accounting area. Based on the theoretical framework, it provides a comprehensive assesement of various aspects of decision making process (why, what, how, where and the outcome) and establishes hypotheses related to types of accounting services suitable for provision by service centers, locations, ownership and financial outcome. Empirical study was conducted and statistical methods had been applied to test those hypotheses. Thesis aims to provide a guidenace for managers of companies who consider to start using shared service centers or who already use them and would like to further improve this model in accounting areas.

In the realm of globalization, international sourcing of services contributes to reshape firm’s value chains as the physical dispersion of these activities increases. This reorganization does not simply lead to the replication of domestic activities in a destination providing resource advantages, but, in most cases, it implies profound modifications of the flows of activities, including the reconsideration of the boundaries of the firm. Global sourcing strategies, also called offshoring, seek to increase firm’s efficiency by combining the exploitation of foreign locational advantages with process redesign. When aggregated, these firm-level strategies translate into considerable international exchanges to a point that flows of intermediate services represent about 73% of the total of international trade in services for 2005 (OECD, 2009). These activities present a high degree of heterogeneity in terms of functions concerned, the related domestic industries, motivations, destinations, organizational structure or scope. This wave of internationalization, because of its relative novelty, growth and rapid diversification, draws the interest from the public, political and academic spheres but the comprehension of the determinants shaping the configuration and organization of these activities still remain largely unknown. Based on four essays, this PhD thesis addresses the impact of host-country characteristics and distance factors on the configuration of international sourcing activities in the dimensions of location, governance model and scope of activities.

The first paper studies the country-specific determinants of the interdependent choices of destination and governance model in the global sourcing of services. I explore the simultaneity of these decisions and I jointly estimate their determinants using implementation-level data. Derived from comparative advantages, host-country uncertainty and the global dispersion of tasks, I present three classes of factors driving global sourcing configurations: resource arbitrages, host-country risk and communication barriers. Empirical results confirm that locations with resource or capabilities advantages specific to services – low labour cost, education and labour supply – attract more offshoring activities. However the pursued resource advantages differ depending on the governance model. Country attractiveness for captive implementations presents a higher positive sensitivity to the education-intensive resources, while outsourcing strategies have a greater cost-cutting orientation coming from labour cost arbitrages. Furthermore, the risks inherent to the host-country, in the form of weak formal institutions and inexperience in the destination, have the dual effect of deterring location attractiveness, while they foster the adoption of the outsourcing model compared to the captive one. Communication barriers coming from geographic distance, cultural and linguistic differences have the simultaneous effect of discouraging global sourcing in those locations while, to overcome these constraints, firms favor higher integration with the use of captive models.

This second paper further explores the mechanisms through which home-host country distances affect the choice of governance mode in service offshoring. Using a Transaction Cost Economics approach, I explore the comparative costs of the hierarchical and contractual models to show that different dimensions of distance (geographic, cultural and institutional), because they generate different types of uncertainties, impact offshore governance choices in different ways. Empirical results confirm that, on the one hand, firms are more likely to respond to internal uncertainties resulting from geographic and cultural distance by leveraging the internal controls and collaboration mechanisms of a captive offshore service center. On the other hand, they tend to respond to external uncertainties resulting from institutional distance by limiting their foreign commitment and leveraging the resources and local experience of third party service providers. Finally, I find that the temporal distance component (time zone difference) of geographical dispersion between onshore and offshore countries plays a dominant role over the spatial distance component.

The third section then concentrates on the impact of the institutional environment (regulative) on international sourcing activities. To exploit country-specific advantages, firms that source activities from abroad are forced to integrate the institutional environment into the choice not only of host-country, but also of governance model for their offshore activities. Considering inefficient institutions as drivers of transaction costs, this conceptual paper explores the impact of the host-country regulative environment in the interdependent decisions of country selection and governance model (captive or outsourcing) in firms’ global sourcing strategies. I consider two classes of assets: transferred assets for knowledge/information flows, and local assets sourced from the host location. I show that each class involves specific institutional risks for offshoring practices. In turn, because of the different institutional exposures of the captive model and the outsourced one, the institutional risks associated with transferred and local assets have different implications for the choice of governance model. Firms react to institutional risks relative to transferred assets by internalizing their activity, but they bypass inefficient institutions for local assets using outsourcing. Based on the interaction of the institutional risks relative to each class of assets, I then obtain sufficient conditions that give the firm-optimal combinations of country selection and governance model.

The last section studies how firm-level and country-level risks affect the scope of the process operated in the foreign unit. To prevent appropriation hazard for proprietary content, firms choose a particular disaggregation of the value chain. We argue that, in response to the lack of control offered by internalization and the lack of protection provided by host-country institutions for protecting proprietary content, firms reduce the scope of their activities. In other words, they exploit existing complementarities between the tasks of their value chain using a higher disaggregation of their process and therefore reducing appropriation value for outsiders. Based on a sample of 750 international sourcing projects, regression results on the scope of offshore activities confirm that firms prefer to source discrete tasks rather than entire processes when they lack the protection of internalization and external institutions. In addition, experience modifies these relationships. On the one hand, inexperienced firms do not rely on this slicing mechanism to prevent the loss of control implied by an outsourcing model. On the other hand, the effect of weak institutional protection is perceived as more stringent for inexperienced firms. When host-country institutions are deficient, these firms, compared to the experienced ones, have a higher propensity to operate discrete tasks rather than entire processes.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This Master Thesis is focused on the concept of outsourcing and Shared Service Center (SSC) as a tool for reducing operational costs. Outsourcing will be defined along with the various types with advantages and disadvantages of each. Further, the work is focused on process of establishing SSC. The main objective of this thesis is to identify and assess the most important factors for establishing a Shared Services Center. The primary target is divided into the sub- goals. These goals include identifying key factors for locating SSC, assessing the financial benefit of establishing SSC and revelation in which parts of the company savings are highest. Next sub-objective is to evaluate various stages of implementation and progress. The last objective is to evaluate using KPIs as a tool for measuring effectiveness of SSC. For achieving these goals online research, evaluation interviews with executives of Vodafone and internal materials are used. For evaluating of locality are also used methods of managerial decision-making. Theoretical part is followed by a case study. I chose an example of establishing Vodafone SSC in Budapest. On this example my knowledge

Weathering turbulent economic environment in the past decade, the global Information, Communications Technology industry is restructuring and the low-income nations are becoming the major suppliers in it. This study aims to assess the attractiveness of South Africa as an outsourcing location for IT services. The idea for the study emerged from a preliminary research on the topic. As a result it became evident that the topic is not fully covered yet. Therefore, the study is exploratory in its nature, where the fieldwork and the data collection are the main building elements in the theoretical propositions. This study emphasizes on the concept of outsourcing practice, the relevant benefits and constrains, and the motivation of the companies to pursue an internationalization strategy. The macro-economic analysis depicts the relevant trends that affect the performance of ICT sector in South Africa and the factors that shape the national competitiveness. In pursue to confirm the validity of the findings, the opinion of three local IT companies is collected in the form of in-depth interviews. Based on the previous findings, a general recommendation about the attractiveness of South Africa is prepared. The study suggests that South Africa has the potential to emerge as an attractive location for outsourcing of IT services. The outcomes aims to attract the attention of both scholars and business practitioners in pursue to serve as a prelude for future, more extensive, researches.
Ao passar por tempos económicos tempestuosos na última década, a industria global de informação, telecomunicações e tecnologias encontra-se em processo de reestruturação e as nações de baixos rendimentos convertem-se nos maiores fornecedores nela. A presente investigação visa avaliar a atracção da África do Sul como lugar de outsourcing para os serviços IT. A ideia da investigação surge do estudo preliminar do tema. Como resultado tornou-se claro que o tema não está ainda bem desenvolvido. Eis porque a investigação é de exploração) pelo seu carácter, onde os estudos de campo e a colheita de dados são os principais elementos edificadores nas propostas teóricas. A presente investigação sublinha o conceito da prática de outsourcing, as respectivas vantagens e limitações, bem como a motivação das empresas de implantação da estratégia de internacionalização. A análise macroeconómica ilustra as respectivas tendências que influem na apresentação do sector IKT na África do Sul e nos factores que formam a competitividade nacional. Para confirmar a validez dos resultados, as posições de três companhias IT locais foram recolhidas sob a forma de entrevistas aprofundadas. Com base em constatações anteriores foi elaborada una recomendação geral sobre a atracção da África do Sul. O estudo sugere, assim, que África do Sul tem potencial para emergir como uma localização atractiva para outsourcing de serviços de TI (Tecnologias de Informação). O estudo visa atrair a atenção tanto dos cientistas como dos círculos de negócio e servir de preâmbulo para as futuras investigações mais amplas.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Marketing apresentada à Faculdade de Economia
O presente trabalho tem como tema principal o Outsourcing de Serviços em IT e posterior análise de qual o método de entrega com base na proximidade, se através de entrega via nearshoring, se através de entrega via offshoring, que possa vir a ser adotado neste cenário. O estudo realizado foi do tipo quantitativo, com recurso a inquéritos não presenciais, onde se recolheram informações de um público alvo pertencente ao sector das Tecnologias de Informação. Tem como objetivo determinar os antecedentes da “Attitude Towards Outsourcing” bem como os seus consequentes.O estudo deste tópico justifica-se pela necessidade de compreender, de uma maneira mais profunda, quais são os drivers que influenciam a tomada de decisão de um profissional quando se depara com necessidade de fazer outsourcing de serviços, na área da tecnologia da informação. Este método de entrega de trabalho, pode trazer vantagens para a instituição quer de caráter estratégico, económico e de concentração de recursos nas atividades centrais da instituição, bem como através da partilha de risco com entidades externas. Por outro lado, as desvantagens prendem-se com a perda de controlo na(s) atividade(s) a serem sub contratadas, custos imprevistos ou abuso de posição por parte do(s) fornecedor(es). Há que ter em conta ainda que o local da entrega dos serviços sub contratados poderá também influenciar positivamente ou negativamente a decisão, tendo em conta que em regime de nearshoring existem várias vantagens, enquanto que, quando a entrega é feita em offshoring para além do preço não terá mais vantagens diretamente associadas.Feita uma cuidada análise estatística dos resultados obtidos constatou-se que os fatores que antecedem a “Attitude Towards Outsourcing” são a “Estratégia”, os “Fornecedores de Serviços” e a “Confiança dos Fornecedores” e como consequência da primeira temos a “Behavioural Intention face a Nearshoring vs. Offshoring”. A escala utilizada foi adaptada do trabalho feito por Bandeira (2009) e Mozzini (2011), e esta assenta em várias teorias nomeadamente em teorias de âmbito económico, social e de ação racional. Quanto ao lado inovador deste trabalho, destaca-se o facto de o modelo usado usar a “Attitude Towards Outsoucing” para testar as hipóteses associadas à decisão do Outsoucing em IT.
This dissertation has as its main topic the Outsourcing of IT Services and subsequent analysis of the delivery method based on proximity, examining if the work would be delivered through a nearshoring model or via an offshoring one. This study was done based on a quantitative method, where the extensive use of questionnaires was applied. The target of these questionnaires is represented by professionals who belong to the IT sector. It has as its main objective to determine the antecedents of the “Attitude Towards Outsourcing” as well as their consequents. The study of this topic is justified by the need of further understanding of what drives and influences the decision taking of an IT professional when confronted with the need to outsource IT services. The outsourcing decision could bring advantages to the institution such as strategical, economical, concentration of own resources in core activities and risk sharing with external activities. On the other hand, the disadvantages could be loss of control of the activities that were outsourced, unforeseen costs or even abusive supplier behavior. Besides the above, the work location of the IT services being delivered, could also influence positively or negatively the overall outcome of the outsourcing decision. On one hand, taking in consideration that the nearshore delivery has several associated advantages, on the other hand the offshore delivery, besides the lower overall cost could hardly have anything else to offer.After going through a thorough statistical analysis, it can be concluded that the factors that antecede the attitude towards Outsourcing are the Strategy, Service Suppliers and Supplier Trust. As a consequence of the first we have the Behavioral Intention facing a Nearshoring vs. Offshoring scenario. The model used in this study was an adaptation based on the work done by Bandeira (2009) e Mozzini (2011) and overall it relies on several theories such as economic, social theories and the Theory of Reasoned Action. The innovative part of this work is the use of a unique model that relies on the use of the “Attitude Towards Outsourcing” to evaluate the hypothesis that are related to the decision of Outsourcing within the IT.

Under the public-private partnership (PPP) programme, private sector finance, management expertise and innovation are used in ‘partnership’ to modernize public services. However, advocates fail to account for the differing aims and responsibilities of the public and private sectors, in that private companies plan to make a profit out of non-profit public sector organizations. There is a paucity of critical empirical research into new ‘partnership’ forms of privatization and the implications that these have for employment and work. This article will examine the PPP of National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and some of the initiatives introduced and problems encountered, which resulted in the creation of a multi-tier workforce, together with the insourcing, outsourcing and the first ever offshoring of UK Government work to India.