How can the international strategic outsourcing prejudice company´s way of operating in the market research sector?

Abstract

For a company to survive in long term and to be competitive with multinational enterprises, grow internationally must be part of the corporate strategy for managers. Thereby, strategic alliances are a reliable option for a firm to effectively increase business performance with strategic partners, that allow a firm to focus on their own main competencies and take advantage of the capabilities that the partner has to offer. One method used by organizations is to outsource some operations along the value chain with the main goal of saving money, mainly when outsourcing to countries with cheaper labour force like India. Hence, choosing the right partner becomes the main challenge for managers and predictions about the competencies and how the third part will perform, are uncertainties that are complex to evaluate. To effectively understand the impacts that an outsourcing agreement of services have in company´s operations, we conducted four interviews with workers from the market research firm with also participant observation. Our findings suggest that indeed, in the market research sector, when outsourcing to a country with a completely new reality in terms of consumption patterns, different needs and habits, with a product availability distinct and unique, with different levels of competition (regarding the companies that operate in that country) and different ways of working, may lead to negative consequences in the company´s operationality. By being in a specific and complex sector, makes even more the transmission of the know-how a huge challenge between countries and could lead to unexpected costs.

Date of Award	7 Mar 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Laure Leglise (Supervisor)