Offshoring, Outsourcing, Production Fragmentation: Definitions, Measures and Origin of the Research

Abstract

To explore and explain the phenomenon of offshoring, outsourcing and production fragmentation we should start with the clarification of basic concepts used to describe the phenomena associated with them. We also have to identify origins of the research on these phenomena and last, but not least, present sources of data and precise measures that we can use in our own analysis. Therefore, the aims of this chapter are to review and clarify the terminology describing offshoring and outsourcing, to show the origins and the main areas of research on these phenomena and to present sources of statistical data and measures used to analyze production fragmentation. The research presented in this section is primarily based on literature studies. The first section is devoted to the analysis of terminology as well as of the different classifications of phenomena related to offshoring, outsourcing and production fragmentation. In this section we also propose the precise terminology we will use in this book to describe offshoring and outsourcing. In the second section we present the origins of research on offshoring and outsourcing and the main research problems addressed by various authors. In the final part of this chapter we present sources of statistical data and metrics used by various researchers to measure and analyze offshoring and outsourcing.