Zugl.: Hohenheim, Univ., Diss., 2009

L’ouverture et la mise en concurrence des territoires ont bouleversé le paysage industriel et économique français. La survie économique de nombreuses entreprises s’est faite au prix d’un redéploiement spatial de leurs activités appelé communément « délocalisation ». Ainsi, les délocalisations ont d’abord affecté les métiers où la main-d’œuvre constituait une part importante du coût de revient. Ces activités ont connu des moments très difficiles et ont eu pour conséquences de nombreuses fermetures d’unités de production et la perte de dizaines de milliers d’emplois. Aujourd’hui, ce schéma tend à se modifier par la volonté des pays émergents à se positionner aussi sur les activités techniques et technologiques. Face à ce phénomène inquiétant, les collectivités locales se retrouvent souvent démunies. Comment éviter le départ des entreprises françaises ? Comment attirer de nouveaux investisseurs ? Quelles sont les activités les plus menacées ? Quelles sont les conséquences réelles sur les bassins d’emplois ? Certains secteurs sont-ils encore protégés ou ce mouvement va-t-il se poursuivre et s’étendre jusqu’à toucher l’ensemble des activités françaises ? Va-t-on assister à un « redéploiement territorial», marqué par la marginalisation d’anciennes régions industrielles et l’essor de nouveaux territoires, mieux armés pour résister en France ? Peut-on réellement mesurer et quantifier ce phénomène ? L’objet de cette thèse de doctorat est d’observer et d’analyser les conséquences de ce phénomène multiforme dans les secteurs les plus sensibles et les régions les plus concernées. Nous tenterons de dégager les perspectives d’un tel mouvement dans le cas français en insistant sur les paramètres susceptibles de les faire évoluer à court et moyen terme et d’analyser les modes de régulations locales qui permettraient de valoriser le territoire français. / Competition across territories has shaken the French industrial landscape. The economic survival of some industrial companies was achieved at the expense of a spatial reorganisation commonly referred to as “relocation”. These relocations first affected jobs where workforce constituted an important part of the cost of returns. Such activities went through difficult paths and led to numerous factory closures as well as thousands of job losses. Today, this scheme tends to evolve due to emerging countries’ willingness to position on technical and technological activities. In front of this worrying trend, local authorities are often powerless. How to avoid the exodus of French industrial companies? How to attract new investors? What are the most threatened activities? What are the real impacts on employment pools? Are some sectors still protected or is this movement going to extend until affecting all French industrial activities? Will we witness a “territorial redeployment” characterised by the marginalisation of former industrial regions and the emergence of new territories better equipped to resist in France? Can we really quantify and measure this phenomenon? This dissertation aims to observe and analyse the terms of spatial and organisational activities in the most sensitive sectors and the most affected regions. It intends to highlight the perspectives for such a trend in the French case while insisting on the parameters likely to make it evolve in the short and medium term, and analysing the types of local regulations that can promote the French territory.

Rise of offshoring services to developing countries has led to the participation of small offshoring services providers in the global value chains. Many inter-disciplinary researches have understood whether participation in global value chains (GVCs) leads to beneficial outcomes for small suppliers. However, the institutional dynamics that may hamper or support small supplier upgrading has not received much attention. This is especially true for small offshoring services providers (OSPs) who are operating in an adverse institutional environment represented by low quality institutions, political instability, and political conflicts. Taking an offshoring service provider’s (OSP) perspective, this paper aims to understand the how Pakistani OSPs bypass/address the challenges of upgrading and move to significant positions in global value chains. Anchoring this work in the relational economic geography, global value chain, and international business, an analytical framework is developed based upon three conceptual building blocks: Upgrading challenges, strategic responses, and upgrading. The thesis adopts qualitative interview technique to collect data from seventeen Pakistani OSPs. The textual data which is interpreted using template analysis technique shows that some Pakistani OSPs demonstrate ‘resilient’ strategies to upgrade in GVCs. The differences in the resilience of OSPs are dependent upon a) level of responsiveness of OSPs to cope with all or some of the upgrading challenges, b) to adapt the changing demands of GVCs. It is understood that OSPs showing high level of responsiveness and adaptation are able to truly upgrade in global value chain by gaining legitimacy in GVCs for their ability to successfully meet GVC conventions and legitimise operation in an adverse economy.

Dentro da área de Negócios Internacionais, uma nova tendência surgiu no início da década de 2000, em complemento ao movimento de outsourcing que já se observava há décadas. Este movimento denominado offshoring passou a ocupar importante espaço na mídia e também em periódicos especializados, onde se procurou entender, caracterizar e delimitar sua abrangência, causas e conseqüências. Este trabalho procura contribuir neste tema através de um survey realizado junto a 172 subsidiárias de multinacionais instaladas no Brasil dos mais variados setores da economia. Com base nisso, quatro conjuntos de hipóteses foram elaborados para serem testados através das respostas obtidas com a aplicação de um questionário via Internet e que possibilitaram a verificação estatística para cada hipótese formulada. O primeiro conjunto foi referente aos tipos de atividades (estratégicas ou não-estratégicas) que a subsidiária desenvolve no país. O segundo conjunto está relacionado à terceirização de atividades. Se a terceirização faz parte do modelo de negócios adotado e que tipo de serviços contrata junto a terceiros. O terceiro conjunto questiona a percepção com relação à competitividade obtida pela subsidiária segundo os drivers encontrados, as ferramentas para decisão disponíveis e eventuais parcerias realizadas. Finalmente o quarto conjunto avalia a percepção dos respondentes com relação ao risco de perda ou inibição interna de competências. De forma geral, os testes realizados mostraram que as empresas pesquisadas realizam grande quantidade de atividades estratégicas, mas que também terceirizam serviços estratégicos em complemento às suas operações e modelos de negócios. Também foi observado que a competitividade é melhorada através do outsourcing de serviços, mas que também existe o receio de risco de perda ou inibição de competências, apesar de utilizarem ferramentas ou conceitos conhecidos como cadeia de valor, custo de transação, visão baseada em recursos e competências essenciais. / Within the area of international business, a new trend emerged in the early 2000s, in addition to the movement of outsourcing that has already been watched for decades. This movement called offshoring went on to occupy important space in the media and also in specialist periodicals, which sought to understand, characterize and delimit its scope, causes and consequences. This work seeks to contribute in this theme through a survey conducted among 172 subsidiaries of multinationals in Brazil from different sectors of the economy. Basis, four sets of hypotheses to be tested were prepared through the answers obtained by applying a questionnaire via the Internet and that allowed the statistical verification for each assumption made. The first set was covering the types of activities (strategic or non-strategic) that the subsidiary develops in the country. The second set is related to the outsourcing of activities. If outsourcing is part of the business model adopted and what kind of services hires along to third parties. The third set questions the perception with respect to competitiveness obtained by subsidiary second drivers found, available tools for decision and possible partnerships undertaken. Finally the fourth set assesses the perception of the respondents with respect to the risk of loss or inhibition of internal competence. Generally, the tests showed that the companies surveyed develop large amount of strategic activities internally, but that also outsource strategic services in addition to its operations and business model. It was also noted that competitiveness is improved through outsourcing services, but also there is the fear of risk of loss or inhibition of skills, although using tools or concepts known as value chain, transaction cost economics, resource-based view and core competences.

Nya dator– och robotsystem utvecklas ständigt och är på väg in i så gott som alla branscher. En mycket omdiskuterad artikel från USA har med anledning av detta beräknat en så kallad automatiseringssannolikhet för samtliga yrkesgrupper i landet. 2010 gjorde författarna ett försök att förutspå framtiden och drog slutsatsen att 47 procent av alla yrken i USA kommer att försvinna till följd av automatisering under de kommande 20 åren. Denna studie undersöker, med hjälp av måttens svenska motsvarighet, i vilken utsträckning digitaliseringen påverkat sysselsättningsfördelningen i Sverige mellan 2001-2013. Då fler faktorer naturligtvis kan ha betydelse har variabler såsom sannolikhet för att flytta delar av produktionsprocessen utomlands (offshoring) och grad av rutinmässighet (RTI) också tagits med i modellerna. Resultatet visade att det finns ett statistiskt säkerställt samband mellan förändringen i andel sysselsatta i ett yrke och yrkets automatiseringssannolikhet, även om effekten är svag. Ju högre automatiseringssannolikhet ett yrke har, desto sämre har sysselsättningsutvecklingen i termer av yrkets andel av den totala sysselsättningen varit. Även RTI och offshoring uppvisar ett negativt samband med sysselsättningsutvecklingen.

IT outsourcing has been studied by many scholars throughout the world in much detail. The People’s Republic of China, as one of the leading IT outsourcing markets in the world, nonetheless, is still considered as a developing market. Not many IT outsourcing studies have set their focus on China. Although there are summary overviews, few studies have sought to answer why China should be studied or what should foreign companies be aware of before searching for any Chinese service providers. Through a literature review of conducted research, this study aims to provide an overview of the challenges of IT outsourcing to China by answering the following research question: How does extant research portray the fundamental challenges of outsourcing IT to China? In sum, this study concludes that there are three main challenges including guanxi/relationship, legal risks, workforce/professional skills in outsourcing IT to China, offering insights as to why and how foreign companies need to understand and face these challenges before outsourcing IT to China.

This thesis focuses on how companies in Sweden should manage the processes of offshore outsourcing IT services to low-cost locations, but also how they should manage the planning and accomplishment to achieve their goals and the expected result in a good way. The thesis states that companies in Sweden need to put a lot of effort into planning and research considering potential location and vendor. Different aspects and phases of the offshoring processes will be stated, discussed and analyzed concerning a fictive company called AbcIT. A visualization of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats is presented by a SWOT analysis regarding offshore outsourcing of IT-services to India. / Denna uppsats fokuserar på hur företag i Sverige skall gå tillväga när de överväger offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till lågkostnadsländer, hur de ska genomföra planeringsarbete och genomförande för att på bästa sätt uppnå både mål och resultat. I uppsatsen konstateras att företag i Sverige behöver lägga stor vikt vid planering och förundersökning av framtida område och affärspartner. Olika faktorer och delar av offshoringprocessen tas upp, diskuteras och analyseras med hjälp av det fiktiva företaget AbcIT. En SWOT-analys visualiserar interna styrkor och svagheter samt externa möjligheter och hot vid offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till Indien.

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Background An increasing number of companies in Europe are interested in reshoring the production to their home country. Advantages in other countries, such as low direct wages, do not seem to play the major role anymore. Companies start to reassess their manufacturing location decision and start to see advantages in having production facilities in their home country and closer to the market. Nevertheless, reshoring is a long-term decision and comes with many factors that must be taken into consideration. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to show learnings from shortcomings of outsourcing and offshoring decisions, so the shortcomings can be avoided when making reshoring decisions. Based on this together with a deep research of the literature, factors to consider when deciding to reshore should be proposed. These factors should be compared to the results of the empirical research to see their validity and if possible, they should be developed and complemented. Method To answer the research questions, a thorough literature review was crafted and a qualitative case study in form of semi-structured interviews with highly experienced employees of different companies in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland was conducted. The companies were picked based on their location, their industry and their experiences with manufacturing location decisions. The collected data was summarized, discussed and analyzed based on common themes. Conclusion After reviewing a vast amount of literature and empirical material concerning the topic of reshoring, the nature of the reshoring decision became a lot clearer. It is a very complex decision which requires the companies to take a close look at many different factors, as shown in figure 2. This framework allows companies to have a better overview of the factors influencing their reshoring decision. Since the reshoring decision itself varies quite substantially depending on the company, it is important that companies adapt these factors to their specific needs. Only when considering this step, a correct decision can be ensured.

This dissertation thesis examines key aspects of a shared service center concept within an accounting area. Based on the theoretical framework, it provides a comprehensive assesement of various aspects of decision making process (why, what, how, where and the outcome) and establishes hypotheses related to types of accounting services suitable for provision by service centers, locations, ownership and financial outcome. Empirical study was conducted and statistical methods had been applied to test those hypotheses. Thesis aims to provide a guidenace for managers of companies who consider to start using shared service centers or who already use them and would like to further improve this model in accounting areas.