The organizational side of outsourcing

Although outsourcing is broadly recognized as a relevant and multi-faceted strategic choice, its actual outcomes are still debated. Often the valuation of such choices is limited to the old-fashioned make or by scheme. The frequency and the scope of outsourcing and offshoring have increased constantly during the last 20 years, along with their popularity, which has coincided with other ‘management fashions’ (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999) and similar ‘bandwagons’ (Staw & Epstein, 2000), like business process re-engineering, strategic focalization, creation of shared services, and corporate downsizing (De Fontenay & Gans, 2008; Gospel & Sako, 2010; Angeli & Grimaldi, 2010). Despite the strategic and financial outcomes of outsourcing have been well documented (e.g. Marchegiani et al., 2012; Giustiniano et al., 2014) both the managerial practice and the extant literature still lack a set of consolidated managerial techniques capable of tackling some of the organizational issues related to outsourcing. Notwithstanding their variety, such issues can be grouped into two main categories: 1) the paradoxes of outsourcing, 2) management of the ‘liminal’ effects generated.