Innovation Offshoring

In addition to classifying the current understanding of the offshoring phenomenon, Simon Plankenhorn examines potential offshoring opportunities for innovation projects – from a conceptual and an empirical perspective. Leading European sponsors in five industries were questioned and confirmed the majority of hypotheses, while two case studies in the Indian clinical trial industry revealed surprising insights into growth oriented offshoring.

The continuous search for efficiency gains and the goal of attaining a sustainable competitive advantage have steadily increased the volume of goods and services procured globally from third party vendors. In this context, named as “the next wave of globalization”, the offshoring phenomenon has stimulated research and political debates. With the rise of services offshoring, international value chain disaggregation for services has reached a formerly unknown scale. Also, it is increasingly complex transactions, requiring a higher degree of qualification, which are becoming subject to offshoring as well. The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow’s Organization features selected chapters by an international research community on the topic of offshoring. All potential business models from offshore outsourcing to third party providers are covered, from cooperative arrangements to internal organizational set-ups including captive offshore centers. Contributions have significant insights regarding: the increasing offshoring of knowledge-intensive services; the offshoring process; business models incorporating offshoring; the hidden costs of offshoring; and the administration of offshoring activities within firms The book is aimed at a broad audience of scholars, students and practitioners in the fields of strategy, international business and operations management.

The third edition of Exploring Innovation offers an engaging new perspective on innovation. The book provides business students with a clear understanding of the nature of innovation and how it can be managed and fostered. Written in an accessible style, Exploring Innovation encourages students to challenge their pre-conceived ideas about innovation and to see it as a continuous, on-going process, by exploring some of the biggest developments in innovation. Lively discussions of key concepts are provide through numerous case studies, on a range of original products and services, bringing business theories to life. The new edition has been fully revised and updated with a more intuitive structure to now feature: A greater emphasis on what innovation involves. A new chapter on Value Capture. Expanded coverage on Services and Process Innovations. Two new chapters covering Global and Green trends in innovation. 8 new major case studies and more than 40 new mini-cases including Twitter, Angry Birds, Netflick, Google and Toyota.

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This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 9th international Global Sourcing Workshop 2015, held in La Thuile, Italy, in February 2015. The 14 contributions included were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. The book offers a review of the key topics in outsourcing and offshoring, populated with practical frameworks that serve as a tool kit to students and managers. The range of topics covered is wide and diverse, but predominately focused on how to achieve success and innovation in global sourcing. The topics discussed combine theoretical and practical insights regarding challenges that industry leaders, policy makers, and professionals face. Case studies from various organizations, industries and countries are used extensively throughout the book to illustrate results and findings.

In today's dynamic world, technology and innovation are of extreme importance for many organizations and for the advancement of society as a whole. In the past decades, firms have faced grand challenges of fast-changing innovation environments, shortening product life cycles and increased global competition. Especially those firms that seek to establish and maintain a competitive advantage by following an innovation-related strategy have been pressured to ensure an effective and efficient innovation process. However, a centralized R&D configuration with one large in-house domestic location was in many ways no longer sufficient in achieving this. Instead, firms have increasingly crossed country boundaries, have opened up their organizational boundaries, or have done so simultaneously. While there are first insights on the performance implications of crossing country and organizational boundaries, further research is needed to understand better how firms can effectively manage boundary-crossing activities. This is where this thesis sets in. Despite the heterogeneity in methods and specific research questions, all thesis chapters focus on the related general question: How can firms increase their innovation performance through boundary-crossing activities? The thesis implies that through strategically opening up the R&D system and crossing organizational and country boundaries, firms can build and maintain a competitive advantage. However, managers need to assess whether their firm is especially vulnerable to potential downsides of crossing boundaries. Based on this thesis, the assessment can build on three major aspects: First, the specific characteristics of the firm. Second, its management practices. And third, the potential effects on the firm's employees.

Examines the shift in leading companies in India towards greater 'value added' and innovative work. Is the move towards greater levels of innovation the future of the services off-shoring industry in India?

This is one of the few books on the market dealing with offshoring of professional services, a dynamic phenomenon of high relevance in the global economy. The market for offshore services is worth more than 1 trillion dollars annually and employs millions of people. Global offshoring of services has been recently undergoing a profound transformation due to automation and robotisation of tasks. It can be associated with the increased codifi cation of knowledge, commoditisation of services and advancement in technology. The global perspective has been supplemented by a detailed analysis of offshoring in Central and Eastern Europe. It witnesses a dynamic growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in professional services, resulting in capital and knowledge transfers. This books is a result of a holistic approach and an interdisciplinary research. It is enriched with conclusions from meetings with representatives of: authorities responsible for attracting FDI; associations of offshoring fi rms; and enterprises operating in professional services. It was also a result of numerous discussions with scholars during academic conferences and research seminars.