Services offshoring: a microfoundations perspective

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the link between services offshoring strategy and its outcomes for the firm by developing a theoretical framework for examining the role of employee motivation in the implementation of services offshoring strategy. Our framework is built on two conceptual foundations: the Microfoundations view of strategy and Goal Framing theory. We analyze services offshoring in terms of (a) the attributes and (b) the outcomes of firm level offshoring strategies, and (c) the micro-level processes that are essential for realizing the outcomes. As part of these micro-level processes, we focus particularly on employee motivation for services offshoring strategy implementation. We argue that our framework should constitute the basis of future empirical research in services offshoring, as it aims to contribute a greater theoretical understanding and practical recommendations for the refinement of services offshoring strategies.