The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring

Global sourcing is a complex area, and one that managers must get to grips with as business investment in outsourcing continues to climb. This book provides invaluable guidance for the reader, walking them through the fundamentals of global sourcing to very recent trends, including intelligent automation, cloud services and crowdsourcing. Replete with key examples and cases, it allows students and managers alike to relate academic theory to practice, acting as a roadmap to a rapidly evolving field.

For the last two decades, the authors have studied the full spectrum of activities involved in global sourcing from both client, supplier and advisory viewpoints. Their research has shown that while more firms engage in global sourcing activities, many of them are still struggling to extract value from sourcing relationships. While past research has produced numerous practical frameworks regarding the management of global sourcing of services, little of this insight has been put into practice.

The 5th edition of this definitive text on global sourcing and service delivery is being updated to reflect the rapid acceleration of digital transformation, ensuring its continued relevance for both practitioners and academic use. While retaining its foundational coverage, the new edition will significantly expand its scope beyond traditional outsourcing and offshoring to address critical contemporary themes, including AI and machine learning, platform and ecosystem sourcing and sustainability.

Ilan Oshri is the Director of the Centre of Digital Enterprise and a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand. His research interests revolve around sourcing, digital, work and innovation in business services. His work has been published in numerous journals and he also published 26 books and dozens of industry reports and teaching cases on global sourcing, digital transformations and emerging technologies.

Julia Kotlarsky is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand. Her research interests revolve around technology sourcing and digital innovation in knowledge-intensive business services, digital sustainability and more recently, studying interface between artificial intelligence technologies and humans, focusing on data issues and digital transformation. She has published 21 books and written extensively about these topics in both managerial and academic journals.

Leslie P. Willcocks has a global reputation for his work in robotic process automation, AI, cognitive automation and the future of work, digital innovation, outsourcing, global management strategy, organizational change, IT management, and managing digital business. He is Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics and Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He is co-author of 79 books on these subjects and has published over 240 refereed papers, with his work also appearing in major media outlets such as Forbes magazine and HBR Online .