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The Offshoring Research Network is an international network of researchers and practitioners studying organizations in their transition to globalizing their business functions, processes and administrative services. The ORN conducts annual surveys tracking global sourcing strategies, drivers, concrete implementations and plans across all business functions and processes.〔(About Offshoring Research Network (ORN) )〕 The ORN is managed by Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). It involves partner universities in Europe, Asia and Australia.〔(Offshoring Research Network Team )〕 The ORN has over 3,000 corporate participants across all industries from all over the world. Based on annual surveys, the ORN research team maintains a comprehensive database of firms and governmental organizations and their implemented and planned offshore sourcing projects over time. In addition, the ORN research team collects data on service providers offering offshore services.〔(Couto et al. (2008) Offshoring 2.0: Contracting Knowledge and Innovation to Expand Global Capabilities: Offshoring Research Network Service Provider Report, p. 15 )〕 Offshoring, according to the ORN, refers to the process of sourcing business functions or processes supporting home-based or global operations from a foreign country, either through wholly owned organizational units (captive offshoring/shared services) or external service providers (offshore outsourcing).〔(Manning et al. (2008) A Dynamic Perspective on Next-Generation Offshoring: The Global Sourcing of Science and Engineering Talent, Academy of Management Perspectives 22.3, p. 39. )〕 The ORN project captures a wide range of business functions and processes, such as information technology (IT), finance & accounting, contact centers, human resources, legal services (LPO), analytical and knowledge services (KPO), software development, procurement, marketing and sales, engineering and new product development. The ORN studies do not cover offshoring of manufacturing activities, nor do they capture outsourcing or shared services activities onshore/domestically.〔 Based on their research, ORN partners have published a number of academic and practitioner-oriented articles.〔(Offshoring Research Network (ORN) Corporate Membership )〕 In addition, the ORN has completed various research projects as well as case studies; organized academic and practitioner-oriented workshops and webcasts; delivered executive education programs and completed commissioned studies for corporate members of the ORN. ==History and current objectives== The ORN project was launched in 2004 by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business.〔 Dr. Arie Y. Lewin, Professor of Strategy and International Business and Director of Duke CIBER, was the initiator and has been the Lead Principal Investigator of the ORN project.〔(Homepage of Professor Arie Y. Lewin )〕 The initial idea behind the project was to study the advancing trend of offshoring white-collar work, including administrative and technical tasks, as opposed to blue-collar work, which is mainly associated with manufacturing and which has been practiced for many years. In 2004, the CIBER research team launched the first annual on-line survey of U.S. companies engaged in or considering offshoring administrative and technical tasks.〔(Lewin, A.Y. & Couto, V. (2007) Next Generation Offshoring: The Globalization of Innovation Offshoring Research Network 2006 Survey Report )〕 The survey was sponsored by Archstone Consulting. It was conceptualized as an annual survey to track offshoring drivers, risks and concrete implementations over time. After the second annual survey in 2005, Duke CIBER launched collaborations with European research partners to expand the research initiative into a research network and to facilitate the recruiting of companies for the survey.〔 The third survey in 2006 was sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton and involved data collection from U.S. as well as European firms and public agencies, from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain. Since then, the project has been further extended and now includes research partners and organizations from Scandinavia, Belgium, Australia and Italy. In 2007, the Conference Board became a lead supporter of the ORN project, and the ORN team launched for the first time a complementary survey of service providers, mainly based in India, China and the United States.〔(Couto et al. (2008) Offshoring 2.0: Contracting Knowledge and Innovation to Expand Global Capabilities: Offshoring Research Network 2007 Service Provider Report. )〕 In 2009, the ORN survey is being converted to a web-based application with a new benchmarking feature adding value to participating organizations.〔 The findings from the annual research surveys have shifted the focus of ORN research over time. After its initial orientation to offshoring white-collar work, the ORN project has put more emphasis on the global search for talent and offshoring of higher-skilled tasks, in particular product development. Most recently, the ORN project has positioned itself as a research project focusing on studying companies in their transition to globalizing their business functions, processes and administrative services. Offshoring is understood as an intermediary step towards evolving new global organizational capabilities rather than an end in itself.〔Heijmen et al. (2009) Offshoring Reaches the C-Suite 2007/8 ORN Survey Report.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Offshoring Research Network」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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