Strategic Trajectories in the Offshoring and Offshore Outsourcing Process

In this paper we examine the offshoring and offshore outsourcing process and the strategic trajectories underlying it, including both the internal venturing and the external outsourcing process. We define and present various perspectives on the offshoring and offshore outsourcing process. We then proceed with three illustrative case studies and discussion, proposing that the decision to outsource has implications over and beyond the intended strategies. The paper approaches these issues from a strategy-as-practice perspective, and particularly addresses its concern for how micro-level activities shape organisational outcomes. It illustrates how standardised and/or non-core operations may gradually change their strategic scope through the actions of local decision makers, producing a self-reinforcing decision cycle. We conclude that the process, and particularly the agency exercised by middle management throughout the company, deserves a more significant space in future investigations of strategic trajectories, if the activities in the distributed network is to bring strategic advantages over and beyond short-term cost reductions.