Managing strategic outsourcing: the risks and the resistance of management

Various factors have spurred the spread of outsourcing. First and foremost has been the need to concentrate resources on the core business, but also important were the development of new information technologies, the increase in competition, which increasingly involves prices, and the fact that a large amount of production is of the “commodity” type. Other spurs have come from the popularity of a free-trade ideology in the economic field and, above all, the wider acceptance of value creation for shareholders as a priority objective of the firm. This article seeks to identify the most important phases of an outsourcing strategy, as well as to illustrate the main risks and possible resistance by management in pursuing such a strategy. The researchers are unanimous in recognizing that there are many obstacles in the way of adopting a long-term outsourcing strategy, in particular the risk of a loss in reputation or a loss of intellectual property rights.