The Challenges of Sustainable Development on Facilities Management Outsourcing Services: An Investigation in Educational Facilities

(1) Background: Generally, firms are reluctant to report outsourcing failures, no matter what industry they operate within. To eliminate poor performance of outsourced service providers, it is necessary to establish a specific outsourcing relationship model for facilities management (FM). The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of outsourcing relationships in relation to FM and to investigate the design of the critical success factors on sustainable outsourcing strategies through a discussion of four dimensions (ownership of FM assets, control of FM assets, competitive position and long-term plan). (2) Methods: Based on two questionnaire surveys, data were collected from 38 clients and 34 service providers. The study evaluated the FM outsourcing strategies from critical success factors in educational facilities in Hong Kong. (3) Results: This study explains the impact of FM outsourcing strategies on Hong Kong’s four commonly outsourced FM contracts including building maintenance, security, cleaning and catering from the clients’ and service providers’ point of view. (4) Conclusions: This is the outsourcing way forward in order to create a better working environment conducive for all the parties that would result in better sustainability of FM’s future and thus impact the economic objectives of sustainable development, in parallel with adding social and environmental value.

Strategic possibilities of IT-outsourcing in the organizations activities in the context of globalization

Research background: Today, modern enterprises are faced with a number of problems, using of outsourcing will contribute to the effective solution, the main advantage of which is the concentration of all efforts on the implementation of core activities without compromising support functions and processes. A special role during the digitization of the economy becomes the development and maintenance of information organization’s management infrastructure based on an IT outsourcing. In modern conditions of environmental changes occur quickly enough, so the use of IT outsourcing creates technological conditions for more active network of cooperation with business partners that could be the basis for the development of organizational competitiveness. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to identify the main areas of opportunities and possibilities of IT outsourcing in business in the digital economy. Methods: To write this article we used general scientific research methods, and methods of economic analysis. Findings & Value added: During the study, reviewed the concept of IT outsourcing and the possibility of its integration into the organization’s management system. Features of this integration are in the competencies formation which are absent in the sponsoring agency. The article studied IT outsourcing in the global market. The results of the analysis revealed the market leaders, and the most popular outsourcing strategies in a changing IT environment. The identified strategic possibilities of IT outsourcing in the activities of organizations provides for its development in further scientific research.

A Hybrid MCDM Model to Evaluate and Classify Outsourcing Providers in Manufacturing

It is a common practice for enterprises to use outsourcing strategies to reduce operating costs and improve product competitiveness. Outsourcing providers or operators need to be aware of environmental protection and make products comply with the restrictions of international environmental regulations. Therefore, this study proposes a set of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches for systematic green outsourcing evaluation. First, a team of experts is established to discuss mutually dependent relationships among criteria, and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique is applied to generate subjective influential weights. Then, a large amount of data from outsourcing providers is collected, and the criteria importance through the intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) method is used to obtain the objective influential weights. Finally, a novel classifiable technique for ordering preference based on similarity to ideal solutions (classifiable TOPSIS) is proposed to integrate the performance of green outsourcing providers and classify them into four levels. The classifiable TOPSIS improves the shortcomings of conventional TOPSIS and establishes a visual rating diagram to help decision-makers to distinguish the performance of outsourcing providers more clearly. Taking a Taiwanese multinational machine tool manufacturer as an example, the performance of outsourcing providers related to manufacturing activities was investigated to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of this proposed model.

DETERMINANTS AND RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOUR OF OUTSOURCING INNOVATION DECISION AND INTENSITY IN VIETNAM: MAKE, PURE OR HYBRID?

This study investigates determinants and risk-taking behaviour of outsourcing innovation decision as well as the intensity in Vietnam. Outsourcing decision consists of an exclusive make (Make), buy (Pure) or a combination of both internal and external knowledge acquisition (Hybrid) in the innovation strategies. We also define outsourcing innovation intensity as the proportion of costs used for outsourcing innovation. We distinguish these outsourcing strategies in relation to product and process innovation. Based on the unique survey data in Vietnam available in 2016, we highlight the importance of the firm-specific factors such as R&D intensity, exporting status, and share of qualified employees dedicated to R&D activities; the firms’ obstacles and objectives for innovation; and the information sources of innovation on the outsourcing innovation decision and intensity. The other striking finding is that outsourcing innovation is risk-taking behaviour, but outsourcing product innovation strategy is a less risky option as compared to the outsourcing process innovation in the case of Vietnamese enterprises.

Digitalization of the Legal Field and the Future of Large Law Firms

This paper discusses how large law firms should re-organize themselves to maintain a competitive edge in the increasingly digitalized legal field. While providing a brief historical introduction to the rise of large law firms and the challenges posed by the rise of digital capitalism and the gig economy, the paper proposes an original and radical approach to reforming large law firms in the light of the digitalization. Among other things, the paper discusses (I) the partnership as organizational tool for large law firms in an increasingly digital and agile legal field; (II) the importance of multidisciplinary practices and of the relationship between lawyers and non-lawyers within firms; and (III) the centrality of outsourcing strategies to legal tech companies and other actors in order to deliver legal services more effectively and in a more client-oriented manner.