Design
This study would employ a qualitative research method to survey the motives for outsourcing IT expertise and technology from other countries. The method would be combined with the deductive approach that takes an up down approach. Therefore, the survey will work from the known to the unknown in order to achieve the study objective of identifying the motives behind IT outsourcing and offshoring.
Doh (2005): Doh examined the implications of outsourcing to multinational IT corporations. He began by examining multinationals and their international ventures in order to assess the elements of theories that could explain internationalization of firms. The survey was conducted among multinational corporations that outsource IT technology and personnel from other countries. The survey found out that most concerns of outsourcing raised by outsourcing firms could be mitigated by international labour, environmental standards and corporate codes.
Garner (2004): The data collected during a study is vital for the relevance of the study. In a survey conducted by Garner to measure the economic impact of offshoring on IT firms, a study population of all outsourcing firms was selected. However, only a small sample of the study population was selected for the purposes of the study. The sample selected was by stratified sampling technique. Similarly, this survey would examine a population of all offshoring firms in the U.S. However, a sample of 200 firms would be selected using stratified sampling technique to represent the entire population.
Lacity, Willcocks & Feeny (2004): They revisited the importance of strategic partnership and outsourcing to commercialization of the back office at Lloyds in London. Their survey collected data on the importance of outsourcing to the firm. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The two methods are important in collecting data for a survey since they enable respondents to provide all he/she has concerning the study topic without bias or prejudice. The interviewer should not provide lead questions to the respondent to avoid biasness. This would grant the study findings credibility and reliability.
Mani, Barua & Whinston (2010): The study conducted by these three sought to establish the impacts of information capability on the ability of a firm to outsource IT technology and personnel. The survey measured service satisfaction as applied in other outsourcing studies. It was established that satisfaction is a proxy for perceived effectiveness of outsourced technology. Following their survey, this study would measure several variables that would include effectiveness of outsourced technology, cost reductions, satisfaction and innovativeness. The data in the variables would be collected using interviews and questionnaires as explained above. The coding process would take place in preparation for analysis by SPSS.
Mitra & Ranjan (2010): the two studied the impacts of offshoring on unemployment. In their survey, they established that in a two-sector labor market, an increase in offshoring of IT skills given labor mobility would result in increased wages and reduced unemployment. They used questionnaires to collect data on the level of outsourcing in the different sectors. The questionnaires were subjected to pilot studies to establish their effectiveness. Similarly, this survey would subject formulated questionnaires to pilot studies to establish their effectiveness in collected the required data for the study.
Yang et al. (2007): this survey was conducted to develop decision for outsourcing firms. The researchers used Analytic hierarchy method to establish the factors that affect outsourcing decisions faced by corporations. A quantitative decision model was established to help managers in outsourcing companies make better decisions.
References
Doh, J.P. (2005). Offshore outsourcing implication for international business and strategic management theory and practice. The Journal of Management Studies, 42, 3.
Garner, A. (2004). Offshoring in the service sector: Economic impact and policy issues. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Journal of Economic Review, Q3(89), 5-33.
Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. & Feeny, D. (2004). Commercializing the Back Office at Lloyds of London: Outsourcing and Strategic Partnerships Revisited. European Management Journal, 22(2), 127-140.
Mani, D., Barua, A. & Whinston, A. (2010). An empirical analysis of the impact of information capabilities design on business process outsourcing performance. MIS Quarterly, 34(1), 39-62.
Mitra, D. & Ranjan, P. (2010). Off shoring and unemployment: The role of search frictions labor mobility. Journal of International Economics, 81(2), 219-229.
Yang, D. et al. (2007). Developing a decision model for business process outsourcing. Computers & Operations Research, 34(12), 3769-3778.