Outsourcing Business Practices and Their Impact

This assignment delves into the effects of outsourcing business practices on organizations. It requires a literature review to identify key themes related to outsourcing, followed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The research aims to determine the positive and negative impacts of outsourcing on businesses, considering factors like efficiency, cost reduction, and potential drawbacks. Reliability, validity, and limitations of the study are also discussed, concluding with an emphasis on the increasing prevalence and significance of outsourcing in today's business landscape.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Business Research Methodology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Content
1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Project Scope.............................................................................................................................5
1.3 Project aim and Objectives........................................................................................................5
1.4 Hypotheses.................................................................................................................................6
1.5 Research Questions....................................................................................................................6
1.6 Methodology..............................................................................................................................6
1.7 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Topic: Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Business Functions
1.1 Introduction
The proposed research is based on the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing business
functions. In managerial context, the practices of outsourcing have varied a lot over the past two
decades, which is spanning from the externalization of support activities to some fundamental
process. However, in the recent time, organizations tend to manage a portfolio of outsourced
activities that could include relatively low-skill activities and knowledge-intensive service (Liu,
and Wang 2014). It has been observed in the recent time that flourishing of Information
Technology outsourcing, the increasingly widespread of finance and accounting information,
medical outsourcing, and the emergence of knowledge outsourcing remains as the promising
niche within the broader concept of business process outsourcing.
Even though, outsourcing practices have been embraced with the usual favor and the
broadening of their span has certainly clashed with some pressure internal and external
stakeholders. However, it is also found that described enhanced complexity of suppler-customer
relations in outsourcing calls for an intensive reflection on its definition as well as the actual span
of action. The proposed study focuses on how outsourcing business practices influence the
operation of the organizations that rely on such practices. The proposed research also
investigates the challenges that organizations face while incorporating such practices in the
business. The proposed research is conducted based on some related theme associated with
business outsourcing such as offshore outsourcing, the drawbacks associated with the usual
practice of outsourcing. Some particular objectives have been formed based on which the
research is supposed to be conducted. The research includes a set of techniques that will be used

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at the time of conducting the analysis; thereby, an outline of the research methods has been
provided in the following.
Background of the Research
Outsourcing is a unique experience and individual organizations find its impact to come
in a different shape and sizes. It is also observed that outsourcing is one of the significant tools
that organizations use to meet its growth, business and operational strategies. Outsourcing has
been as the field of investigation in many fields, spanning from management of information
system to the international business (Al-Mutairi and Al-Hammad 2015). In spite of the
hierarchical of its definition, the scholars agree that the decision to outsource raises the matter of
reliance of the organizations on external sources input, services, process and other-adding
activities. The authors focus on the balancing the span of activities that organizations carry out
internally against those are acquired from outside. In this context, Çiçek and Ozer (2011)
commented that as defining the outsourcing as the decision to outsource activities by recurring to
medium or long-term agreements also including the transfer of activities and personnel to third
parties.
Hence, this particular is also relevant with the further development of the nature of
outsourcing that has been recorded during the past decade such as offshoring global sourcing.
Many studies have been conducted on outsourcing and the studies claim that outsourcing is the
best way to minimize the cost and enhance the performance. Particularly, Dolgui and Proth,
(2013) commented that drastic development in the supply market has also triggered the
outsourcing the techniques for product and services across a series of activities such as financial
service, automotive, airlines and many others. Furthermore, Kang et al. (2012) also commented

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that increasing globalization has enabled the organizations to focus more on their outsourcing
decision. The tactical organizations have started to incorporate outsourcing as the strategic aspect
or weapon to compete in the market.
1.2 Project Scope
The proposed research provides an empirical analysis of the organizations that have
incorporated the outsourcing practices in the business. To conduct the research with the
developed objectives, various aspects relevant to the aspects of outsourcing such as offshore
outsourcing, cost structure, advantages and disadvantages of the incorporated practice, the
organizational performance compared with the conventional business industry has been included
in the study. The objectives provided below help to lead the research toward the desired
direction. The proposed research is structured with a number phases such as the introductory
section provides the significance of the research and provides the objectives. The next phase
provides theoretical framework and represents a critical analysis of the major explanatory
theories related to outsourcing that have been used for dealing outsourcing.
1.3 Project aim and Objectives
The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages
associated with outsourcing. The research aims to examine how outsourcing influences the
business operation of the organizations. The following are the key objectives of the research:
 To critically evaluate the impact of outsourcing on business
 To analyze the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing in business

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 To evaluate the challenges that organizations face in incorporating the outsourcing
practices to the business
1.4 Hypotheses
H0-There is a negative impact of outsourcing practices on business
H1- There is a positive impact of outsourcing practices on business
1.5 Research Questions
 What is the impact of outsourcing on business?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing that organization encounter?
 What are the challenges that organization face in incorporating the outsourcing practices?
1.6 Methodology
In order to incorporate the above-mentioned requirements and conduct the study, the
some particular research techniques are supposed to be included into the proposed research. As
put forward by Miller et al. (2012), methodology is the framework which is associated with a
specific set of pragmatic assumption that will be used to perform the research. Short et al. (2012)
also commented that methodology should be the most suitable and appropriate to accomplish the
research objectives. The proposed research includes both primary and secondary analysis. The
secondary data will be collected from the reliable secondary sources such as peer-reviewed
journals, blogs, newsletter, published annual reports and others. On the other side, to collect the
primary data, the organization IBM will be considered. By conducting the survey and interview
among the employees of IBM, the required type of data will be conducted. The proposed study

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will include a positivism research philosophy, as this research philosophy will help to broaden
the scope of observation. In addition, it helps to extract the hidden truth from the facts.
Data Collection techniques
In order to conduct the proposed research, both primary and secondary data will be
collected. To collect the primary data, the quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques
will be applied to the research. To collect the quantitative data, survey will be conducted among
the employees of IBM. Likewise, to collect qualitative data, the interview will be conducted
among the managers of IBM. Both close-ended and open-ended questions will be designed to
collect the data. For quantitative data, the close-ended questions will be designed and for
qualitative data, the open-ended questions will be designed.
Sampling methods- Sampling can be used as the particular to choose members of
population to be included in the research. Both probability and non-probability sampling will be
used in the proposed study. Probability sampling will be selected because the respondents-
employees might not have intensive knowledge regarding the outsourcing business functions.
Therefore, they might prefer close-ended question where they can provide a straightforward
answer. On the other side, the non-probability sampling will be used as to include descriptive
answers in the discussion, it is mandatory to include the criteria of including people who have
vast knowledge regarding the context of the research. The probability sampling will include 60
employees of IBM and non-probability sampling will use 5 managers of IBM.
Data analysis
In order to make the analysis of the data, the data findings will be linked to the outcome
of the literature review. In addition, before conducting the analysis, the data will be converted to

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numeric digits and then they will be presented in the table and graph. To make the analysis, the
outcome will be linked to the each theme found in the literature review. The data analysis for
quantitative studies involves the critical analysis and the interpretation of figures and number.
This analysis helps to find the rationale the behind the emergence of the major findings.
In addition to this, comparisons of primary research findings to the findings of the literature
review are fundamentally crucial for both type of studies- qualitative and quantitative that will be
used in the study.
Reliability and Validity
The research conducted in the present study is reliable because it is assured that the same
responses can be obtained using the instruments that will be used in the present study. The
survey and the interview will provide the same result whenever the study is conducted with these
two studies. On the other side, the research is valid as the appropriate research techniques will be
used in the present study and the sample used in the study is relevant to the research context. The
large sample
Research limitation
The present study is limited to primary analysis only; the secondary analysis will not be
included in the study. In addition, the research lacks a comparative study, which only
organization has been considered to investigate outsourcing practices of business. A comparative
study would provide more intensive and suitable outcome.

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1.7 Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that the proposed study will help to learn how
outsourcing business practices influence the business. It is expected that outcome will emphasize
on the positive impact of outsourcing on business now. The practice of outsourcing is rapidly
increasing and the organizations are being benefitted by such practices. However, outcome will
provide the accurate understanding regarding the context.

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References
Al-Mutairi, A.O. and Al-Hammad, A., 2015. Advantages and Disadvantages of Maintenance
Outsourcing in Manufacturing Companies: With Special References to Jubail Industrial City–
KSA. European Journal of Business and Management, 7(20).
Çiçek, I. and Ozer, B., 2011. The effect of outsourcing human resource on organizational
performance: the role of organizational culture. International journal of business and
management studies, 3(2), pp.131-144.
Dolgui, A. and Proth, J.M., 2013. Outsourcing: definitions and analysis. International Journal of
Production Research, 51(23-24), pp.6769-6777.
Kang, M., Wu, X., Hong, P. and Park, Y., 2012. Aligning organizational control practices with
competitive outsourcing performance. Journal of Business Research, 65(8), pp.1195-1201.
Liu, S. and Wang, L., 2014. Understanding the impact of risks on performance in internal and
outsourced information technology projects: The role of strategic importance. International
Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1494-1510.
Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M. and Jessop, J. eds., 2012. Ethics in qualitative research.
Sage.
Short, M.B., Black, L., Smith, A.H., Wetterneck, C.T. and Wells, D.E., 2012. A review of
Internet pornography use research: Methodology and content from the past 10
years. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(1), pp.13-23.