Title: Business process outsourcing sector in Visegrad Group

Authors: Katarzyna Budzyńska

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, University of Life Sciences, Lublin, Poland

Abstract: More and more companies decide to build their own branch offices or transfer some functions outside of the company and out of the country, where the main office is located. Offshoring is very often a strategic decision for a company. It allows to increase the competitiveness in the market for the company. If offshoring is carried out properly it can considerably contribute to the improvement of the operational efficiency and it enables it to focus on the core business. The use of this management model makes it possible to give an opportunity to use a unique know-how, technology and competencies. The aim of this article is to define the concept of offshoring and to list its advantages and disadvantages. This article gives a brief description of the BPO sector in Visegrad Group. These countries have an opportunity to attract foreign investments from the BPO/SSC sector owing to the cost competitiveness and relatively high quality of human resources. Therefore, the state and the municipal governments should understand in which specialisation they can compete on the offshoring market. They should also emphasise promotion, which would help them compete in Europe.

Keywords: business process outsourcing; BPO; offshoring; nearshoring; innovation; Visegrad Group; foreign investment; human resources; Czech Republic; Hungary; Poland; Slovakia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2017.080753

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2017 Vol.21 No.1, pp.54 - 68

Received: 18 May 2015
Accepted: 10 Jun 2015

Published online: 06 Dec 2016 *

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