Towards the 24 hours kwowledge factory

Offshoring – the process of migration of productive tasks to low-cost countries – is understood as the evolution of international sourcing strategy: a multi-phased development process, which reflects a gradual evolution of sourcing from domestic purchasing to global sources (Monckca and Trent, 1991). Traditionally, offshoring has been confined to manufacturing tasks and simple tasks such as back office (order processing, billing accounts, payroll processing) and customer service (call centers, on-line customer service, telemarketing). More recently, Western firms have extended this practice to more complex, knowledge-intensive tasks (e.g. R&D, new product development, product design, tele-radiology, diagnosis, clinical trials) delivered by skilled professionals. The aim of the symposium is to illustrate the organizational and strategic implications of the offshoring of intangibles. As the shift from simple tasks to complex, knowledge-intensive tasks entails a redefinition of firm’s sourcing strategies in terms of division of labor for innovation, presenters will illustrate and discuss (a) the geography of offshoring, (b) organizational capabilities that firms develop to effectively manage offshoring of intangibles, and (c) the contingencies (context- and task-specific) that affect offshoring processes. The symposium will benefit from discussion from an industry practitioner as well as academics.