ABSTRACT
The last two decades have witnessed a significant trend towards ever-increasing outsourcing by firms in most developed economies. This trend reverses an earlier pattern in the evolution and growth of large industrial firms towards greater levels of vertical integration that prevailed during most of the previous 100 years. This change in the evolutionary trajectory of firms has attracted significant research attention in recent years. Most academic research has focused on identifying the environmental and organizational antecedents of outsourcing as well as its performance consequences. Meanwhile, a vigorous public policy debate has swirled around the social costs and benefits of the practice of outsourcing (Cooper, 2004). Both in the academic and practitioner literatures, there is considerable controversy and very little consensus. The accumulation of empirical studies of outsourcing over the last 15 years provides us with an opportunity to take stock of the research evidence available, evaluate the often confusing and conflicting findings, and explore possible avenues for future research on this controversial subject.
