Abstract
Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the world has become more globalised than ever (Global Policy, 2003). This globalisation has changed the world and especially the economic and business structure of emerging countries.
Outsourcing is ‘a contractual delegation to an outside supplier (vendor) of a service or an activity that is normally (not always) performed in-house' (Nicholson, B., Jones J., Espenlaub S., 2006). It was first implemented in the 1950s. However, it was only during the 1980s when a wave of globalisation started and the outsourcing strategies adopted by international companies became an important phenomenon (Hatonen J., Eriksson T., 2009). In allowing companies to remain competitive in domestic and international markets, outsourcing has never ceased to increase particularly in emerging markets (Javalgi, R. G., Dixit, A., Scherer, R. F., 2009). Information technology ‘IT' and business services are the leading outsourcing markets as they generated $55 billion in 2008 with an expected growth rate which can reach 20% for the five next years (Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Rottman, Joseph, W., Willcocks, Lesli, L., 2009). Moreover, outsourcing evolves and new sectors are subjected to outsourcing. At the beginning, the biggest companies outsourced only their call centers. Nowadays, big and medium companies continue to outsource their call centers and also new activities like financial services, IT and Business Process Outsourcing BPOs. Outsourcing has taken such scope that every country receives outsourced activities from abroad. Concerning emerging markets, the main outsourcing receivers are the BRIC countries, especially India and China, and also South American countries, East European countries and South Asian countries.
Why outsourcing in emerging countries can be used to gain competitive advantage?
