1. Overview of the Global Sourcing Marketplace

With the advent of globalisation and heightened levels of competition, many organisations are having considerable difficulty developing and maintaining the range of expertise and skills they need to compete effectively. The emergence of American, European, Japanese, and other Asian multinationals has created a competitive environment requiring the globalisation, or at least semi-globalisation, of corporate strategy. Moreover, with developments in information and communication technologies (ICT), firms do not need to be large multinationals to compete globally. These developments have led many companies to turn to various sourcing strategies such as outsourcing, offshoring, offshore outsourcing, nearshoring, and onshoring. This chapter therefore focuses on: