Proceedings of 31st International Business Research Conference
27 - 29 July 2015, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
ISBN: 978-1-922069-80-1
SME's Offshoring Processes: Opportunities for Business
Advantage
Ken Pillipow and William H. Murphy
Competitors pursue any business advantage they can, with tremendous pressures to
reduce costs. In this regard, many argue that outsourcing has become a necessary
condition for the modern firm to remain profitable. This reality has forced managers to
examine their business processes, identifying those which should remain internal and
those which might be more efficiently and effectively outsourced.
Until the 1990s, offshoring outsourcing strategy was mainly directed toward shifting
manufacturing jobs to lower-cost locales. By the start of the new millennium technology
had enabled instant transmission of data, creating the shift for a nearly unlimited range of
business processes to be outsourced. This set the stage for offshoring to be the “next
wave of globalization” (Dossani & Kenney, 2007).
Until now, most offshore outsourcing studies have focused on large enterprises. In this
study we investigate the processes Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs) use when
engaging in offshore outsourcing. Using the tradition of grounded theory, we interviewed
leaders of six SMEs and we analyzed transcripts for emergent themes and patterns.
Specifically, we discuss themes from both the Search (What and Where to offshore) and
Performance (Execution and Calibration) Phases. Given that SMEs are the mainstay of
most economies, guiding SMEs to smarter business decisions regarding outsourcing
strategies is of great importance.
______________________________________________________________
Ken Pillipow, Canmore, Saskatchewan, Email: k.pillipow@usask.ca
William H. Murphy, Associate Professor, Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, 25
Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A7, Canada,
Email: wmurphy@edwards.usask.ca
* William Murphy is the corresponding author for this paper.