Offshore Outsourcing: A Dynamic, Operation Mode Perspective

While the extant literature on offshore outsourcing deals with this operation mode in isolation, and typically with a focus on cost effects, we address the broader question of how companies choose and use outsourcing as part of foreign operation mode development and as a contributor to internationalization. We use a case study of the Danish company SimCorp and the development of its operations in Kiev, Ukraine, to show how learning in various forms, control concerns, and relations with foreign partners may interact and build momentum for mode change. SimCorp’s experience demonstrates that outsourcing can be used proactively to promote expanded international operations.