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International Workshop on Global Sourcing of Information Technology and Business Processes

Global Sourcing 2013: Advances in Global Sourcing. Models, Governance, and Relationships pp 71–92Cite as

The Middle Management of Offshoring: Understanding Offshoring Strategy Implementation at a Meso Level

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 163))

Abstract

A majority of the research on offshoring is positioned on a macro level, explaining firm level strategies for offshoring and the antecedents of offshoring decisions, but research on implementation of offshoring strategies is rare. The author suggest that the actual development and implementation of offshoring can be better understood by applying a meso level approach; the middle management in the organization and its relation to top management directives, when implementing an offshoring strategy. A multiple case study of two multinational company’s offshoring product development to captive centers in India and China show how middle management facilitates the transfer process. By placing the study at a meso level and taking a strategy-as-practice perspective, the findings included: a) the iterative nature of the offshoring process, b) the lack of (communicated) strategies for offshoring and its consequences, and c) a set of routines connected to offshoring emerging at different levels in the company.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mälardalen University, Box 325, Smedjegatan 37, SE-63105, Eskilstuna, Sweden

    Petra Edoff

Authors
  1. Petra Edoff
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough School of Business and Economics, UK

    Ilan Oshri

  2. Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK

    Julia Kotlarsky

  3. London School of Economics, UK

    Leslie P. Willcocks

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Edoff, P. (2013). The Middle Management of Offshoring: Understanding Offshoring Strategy Implementation at a Meso Level. In: Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Willcocks, L.P. (eds) Advances in Global Sourcing. Models, Governance, and Relationships. Global Sourcing 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 163. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40951-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40951-6_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40950-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40951-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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