Low-Cost Country Sourcing: Trends and Implications

ISBN-13: 9783835006928 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 285 str.

Martin Lockstr M.; Prof Dr Christopher Jahns

Opis

Low-cost country sourcing has for long been one of the hottest buzz words in the purchasing and supply management community, especially among practitioners. The lack of coverage in the academic field can potentially be explained by the complexity and the breadth of the topic. Although companies in most industries have sourced on a global level for decades or even centuries in order to reduce cost, the subject have received increasing attention over the last few years in a sense that the concept has become more and more institutionalized as part of the overall sourcing strategy. The developments are welcome especially since the field of purchasing and supply management traditionally has been lagging behind other, more acknowledged disciplines such as finance, accounting, and marketing, among others. This lag is glaring if one considers the absence of faculties involved in the discipline among many universities. Therefore, the initiative of Supply Management Institute to build a worldwide research and training network has proven to be highly attractive for both scholars and practitioners. Furthermore, the discipline has also become increasingly complex due to globalization effects, where business networks become increasingly intertwined and the flow of goods, services, money and human capital grow exponentially over time. To handle the situation, companies are in desperate need for knowledge and information that can help them to crafting effective strategies that can secure supply, reduce risk and ultimately translate into competitive advantage."

Spis treści

Frame of reference of low-cost country sourcing: literature review Research methodology Low-cost country sourcing trends: descriptive study Implications of low-cost country sourcing: explanatory study Conclusions

O autorze

Dr. Martin Lockström promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Christopher Jahns am Supply Management Institute der European Business School (ebs) in Oestrich-Winkel. Er ist als Regional-Direktor für das Supply Management Institute in China tätig.

Blurb

Globalization has induced immense cost pressure in most industries. In combination with the economic downturn after the turn of the century, companies are increasingly looking for new ways of reducing costs and increasing shareholder value. From this perspective, low-cost country sourcing has proved to be an effective means to realize cost-saving targets. Although many external key success factors have been identified, relatively little is known about intra-firm factors that can influence the outcome of low-cost country sourcing initiatives.

On the basis of a pan-European survey conducted among senior purchasing managers of 200 large-sized multinationals, Martin Lockström identifies internal key success factors of companies sourcing in low-cost countries. It is shown that internal factors play a significant role for the shopping achievement of an enterprise and that the respected magnitude of shopping activities in low-cost countries will rise within the next five years.