برون سپاری خدمات حرفه ای به شرکت های خارجی : هزینه معامله از دیدگاه اقتصاد

This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships.

Outsourcing provides a potential path to price reductions and increased flexibility, allowing firms to convert fixed costs into variable expenses, and increase their economies of scope. Studies indicate that short-term price savings continues to be a predominant reason for both offshore and domestic outsourcing (Corbett, 2005 and Doig et al., 2001). Yet the ramifications of outsourcing go well beyond immediate price reduction. Outsourcing has implications for day-to-day management and performance, as well as strategic implications. Outsourcing decisions clearly affect a firm's cost structures, but may also affect the long-term competitive situation and alter the nature of risks that the firm must manage. Offshore outsourcing presents many opportunities that are not available domestically. For example, due to low Indian labor rates, an airline was able to offshore outsource its accounts payable auditing and recover $75 million in delinquent accounts that would not have been cost-beneficial to pursue domestically (Farrell, 2004). Outsourcing can also help a company get better, more state of the art services than it could afford internally. This is a commonly stated reason for outsourcing information technology (McDougall, 2004). Clearly, there is much more to outsourcing than simply saving money. Offshore outsourcing creates both new opportunities and often unrecognized hazards, which may limit a firm's prospects. The long-term costs of these unanticipated consequences can greatly overshadow the potential cost savings. As such, careful consideration should be given to outsourcing decisions including all of the potential long-term consequences. It is no wonder that there has been a call for more research on offshore outsourcing of services (Roth and Menor, 2003).

This research has both managerial and theoretical implications. From a managerial standpoint, the organizations studied had varying degrees of experience in offshore outsourcing professional services. Some had been doing this extensively for over 20 years, while others had just begun to engage in such outsourcing over the last several years. They all had lessons learned along the way to improve their processes and decision making and many of these lessons are mentioned above and summarized below. The bottom line is that organizations should carefully consider, understand, and reduce the risk of offshore outsourcing of services, and that offshore outsourcing of services creates a different set of risks and a need for very different business controls than offshore outsourcing direct materials. From a theoretical standpoint, transaction cost theory provides insights into the professional services best suited for offshore outsourcing, the risks associated with offshore outsourcing professional services, and how to effectively mitigate the risk.