| While outsourcing is widely used by U.S. organizations, the practice is laden with risks related to contracts, process management and loss of confidential information. If left unmitigated, these risks expose outsourcing organizations to unnecessary resource waste and knowledge and expertise loss, which can reduce competiveness and profitability. Based on an outsourcing value proposition (OVP) theoretical framework, the research focus of the explanatory descriptive study was to define how frequently 20 risk-mitigation (RM) best practices (OVP-BP) defined by researchers in this field were employed by U.S. companies using either domestic or off-shore outsourcing. OVP-BP use data from surveys completed by 37 senior risk management officers were explored via descriptive and time series analyses. Results revealed that OVP-BP related to contract RM were more commonly employed than OVP-BP addressing process management RM. No consistent trends over time were observed for domestic OVP-BP, whereas OVP-BP increased over time for overseas outsourcing, but still remained well below domestic OVP-BP deployment. These results suggest that public policy interventions are needed to enforce the use of best practices that can reduce wasted knowledge and expertise. From a social implication perspective, knowledge of the specific gaps in practice identified in this study can be used to remedy the current weaknesses in outsourcing risk management practices and contribute to increased competiveness and profitability among U.S. organizations. |
