<p>Outsourcing has over the years become more important when organizations increasingly focus to become best-in-class within their specific area. With this goal, outsourcing may be used to support core activities or dispose of activities judged as non-core for the organization. With these different ways to apply outsourcing, outsourcing may be used with various motives depending on the organizations goal. To better understand these motives, the aim of this paper is to acquire a deeper understanding of underlying motives organizations may have prior to make an outsourcing decision. This study is carried out through a content analysis of press releases published between 2005 and 2010. The results reveal three mayor motives that appear with a higher frequency in the study. These are; motives to gain competence/technology, motives to gain quality and motives to gain a higher flexibility.</p> / <p>Outsourcing har de senaste åren ökat i signifikans då organisationerna hela tiden flyttar fokus mot att nå en best-in-class position på marknaden. Med det målet kan outsourcing användas för att stödja kärnverksamhet eller för att avyttra aktiviteter som bedöms ej tillhöra kärnverksamheten. Dessa olika sätt att tillämpa outsourcing beror på organisationens bakomliggande motiv vad gällande mål med den outsourcade aktiviteten. Målet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för de bakomliggande motiv som leder till ett outsourcing beslut. Studien är utformad som en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av publicerade pressmeddelanden mellan åren 2005 och 2010. Resultaten visar på tre motiv som uppträder med en högre frekvens i studien. Dessa motiv ämnar till att få; tillgång till kompetens/teknologi, erhålla högre kvalitet samt till att ge den egna organisationen en högre flexibilitet.</p>

Outsourcing has over the years become more important when organizations increasingly focus to become best-in-class within their specific area. With this goal, outsourcing may be used to support core activities or dispose of activities judged as non-core for the organization. With these different ways to apply outsourcing, outsourcing may be used with various motives depending on the organizations goal. To better understand these motives, the aim of this paper is to acquire a deeper understanding of underlying motives organizations may have prior to make an outsourcing decision. This study is carried out through a content analysis of press releases published between 2005 and 2010. The results reveal three mayor motives that appear with a higher frequency in the study. These are; motives to gain competence/technology, motives to gain quality and motives to gain a higher flexibility. / Outsourcing har de senaste åren ökat i signifikans då organisationerna hela tiden flyttar fokus mot att nå en best-in-class position på marknaden. Med det målet kan outsourcing användas för att stödja kärnverksamhet eller för att avyttra aktiviteter som bedöms ej tillhöra kärnverksamheten. Dessa olika sätt att tillämpa outsourcing beror på organisationens bakomliggande motiv vad gällande mål med den outsourcade aktiviteten. Målet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för de bakomliggande motiv som leder till ett outsourcing beslut. Studien är utformad som en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av publicerade pressmeddelanden mellan åren 2005 och 2010. Resultaten visar på tre motiv som uppträder med en högre frekvens i studien. Dessa motiv ämnar till att få; tillgång till kompetens/teknologi, erhålla högre kvalitet samt till att ge den egna organisationen en högre flexibilitet.

<p>This thesis is mainly based on an extensive literature review and statistic analysis. The purpose is to find out the motives and effects of four different options in both literature and empirical study and then answer research questions. The four options are in house production, off-shoring, domestic outsourcing and international outsourcing.</p><p>After the explanation of four options’ definitions, literature review will discuss most common motives and effects of outsourcing from many articles. The theory basis, such as transaction cost, resource based view, industrial view and their influence on the outsourcing will be mentioned to help reader to understand outsourcing.</p><p>In empirical study, four options model and two questions (in house/outsourcing, domestic/off-shoring) from survey are used to classify Swedish companies into four groups which stand for four options. The statistics analysis results are from SPSS's ANOVA and Scheffe.</p><p>According to the results, important motives of Swedish companies are “cost reduction”, “investment reduction”, “fixed cost”, and “accessing to core competence”. They are a little different from the literature review. And most effects of four options are positive, only “lead time” and “delivery time” is significant between “in house production” and “off-shoring” options.</p>

This thesis is mainly based on an extensive literature review and statistic analysis. The purpose is to find out the motives and effects of four different options in both literature and empirical study and then answer research questions. The four options are in house production, off-shoring, domestic outsourcing and international outsourcing. After the explanation of four options’ definitions, literature review will discuss most common motives and effects of outsourcing from many articles. The theory basis, such as transaction cost, resource based view, industrial view and their influence on the outsourcing will be mentioned to help reader to understand outsourcing. In empirical study, four options model and two questions (in house/outsourcing, domestic/off-shoring) from survey are used to classify Swedish companies into four groups which stand for four options. The statistics analysis results are from SPSS's ANOVA and Scheffe. According to the results, important motives of Swedish companies are “cost reduction”, “investment reduction”, “fixed cost”, and “accessing to core competence”. They are a little different from the literature review. And most effects of four options are positive, only “lead time” and “delivery time” is significant between “in house production” and “off-shoring” options.