Outsourcing and Offshoring: Issues and Impacts on Venture Capital

Abstract

Recently, outsourcing/offshoring has gained significant exposure in the popular as well as academic publications, with authors arguing the many different facets of the concept and its implications. The ongoing debates have revolved around issues related to cost of operations, benefits for outsourcing countries and countries that are recipients of outsourcing, the types of skills and associated unemployment, the types of industries that are being most effected, and even its political implications. This chapter discusses various issues related to outsourcing/offshoring and presents the findings of a research study (a survey of 364 individuals from 101 San Francisco Bay Area venture capital firms) attempting to validate (or disprove) some of the most widely discussed and presented points of view.