Learning Paths to Offshore Outsourcing: From Cost Reduction to Knowledge Seeking
通过对丹麦跨国企业的跨行业样本分析，发现离岸外包是一个从成本驱动到追求创新和质量改进的渐进学习过程，决策者认知随经验扩展。
A corporation's offshore outsourcing may be seen as the result of a discrete, strategic decision taken in response to an increasing pressure from worldwide competition. However, empirical evidence of a representative cross‐sector sample of international Danish firms indicates that offshore sourcing in low‐cost countries is best described as a learning‐by‐doing process in which the offshore outsourcing of a corporation goes through a sequence of stages towards sourcing for innovation. Initially, a corporation's outsourcing is driven by a desire for cost minimization. Over a period of time the outsourcing experience lessens the cognitive limitations of decision‐makers as to the advantages that can be achieved through outsourcing in low‐cost countries: the insourcer/vendor may not only offer cost advantages, but also quality improvement and innovation. The quality improvements that offshore outsourcing may bring about evoke a realization in the corporation that even innovative processes can be outsourced.