Building the business case for diversity in offshoring

Carine Peeters (), Patricia Garcia-Prieto and Sébastien Point

No 09-007.RS, Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: Offshoring inevitably leads to increased cultural diversity in work relations. Most companies perceive this increased diversity as a risk, a problem that needs to be minimized or remedied for offshoring to succeed. Building on the business case for diversity management literature we propose an alternative positive view of cultural diversity in the context of offshore relationships. We suggest that the increased cultural diversity that offshoring brings can actually be an opportunity companies should recognize and leverage in order to foster business performance. We specifically argue that under certain conditions related to the organizational context, type of project, teams, and tasks offshored, offshore projects driven by innovation might actually hold a unique competitive advantage through the utilization of their team cultural diversity.

Pages: 35 p.
Date: 2009-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cul and nep-ppm
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Published by: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Business School, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

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