Understanding Call Centre Offshoring

Understanding Call Centre Offshoring from a Socio-Cultural Perspective: A Comprehensive Literature Review
Jongkil J Jeong
Abstract In this paper, a literature review of the current status of Call Centre Offshoring (CCO) research and a conceptual framework which addresses some of the gaps identified in the literature is presented. This paper highlights the limitations of current literature around CCO due to the high variance around the approach towards the topic which has resulted in an absence of a central conceptual framework. By applying four theoretical lenses: Social Exchange Theory, Language-Action Perspective, Cultural Dimensions Theory and Stakeholder theory; this paper identifies themes and topics surrounding CCO from a socio-cultural perspective, which will serve as a foundation for carrying out future in-depth studies around the subject matter. The discussion highlights the fact that better understanding around the cultural and communication gaps which exist between stakeholders engaged in the CCO process would allow for better language to be used amongst the parties involved. Better language will in return improve trust between all the stakeholders that may help address issues such as managing relationships between clients and vendors or enhancing customer service levels between the client and agents.
I.
Introduction
Call centres also known as customer service centres or customer satisfaction centres are a dedicated operation in which employees utilize sophisticated computer systems to make outbound or receive inbound telephone calls which enable them to service clients of a particular firm (Taylor and Bain 1999, Gans et al 2003). Call centres have become an important part of the service industry growing at a rapid pace, and allows firms to provide better customer service, extend sales capabilities and manage customer relationships effectively. The exponential growth of call centres is a recent phenomenon which has only occurred in the past 5 10 years. This emergence has largely been due to the advancements in Information Technology (IT) and telecommunications that has allowed firms to provide cost effective service and sales to customers over the phone due to cheaper costs associated with data transmission for both voice and data. Furthermore, call centre operations are now considered by firms to be not only a vital link to their customers but also a key strategic marketing tool which can also provide a certain competitive
Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems
advantage over other competitors. Hence, the role of call centres to provide quick and easy access to a representative of a firm who can provide timely support and/or sales to customers has become an important asset for many organisations. As costs associated with employing call centre agents and managing these call centres continue to rise in developed nations such as Australia (Access Economics 2009), an increasing number of firms are now engaged in the process of outsourcing these operations to offshore destinations such as the Philippines, India and South Africa etc. to drive down the costs associated with managing and maintaining call centres down (Hood and Forey 2008). For example, media accounts report that Indian Call Centre Operators are more likely to be college-educated workers, while being paid onetenth of the wages their US counterparts earn which make them a much more viable choice from an economic perspective (Batt et al 2005). This process whereby a vendor takes over responsibility for one or more of firms business processes such as a call centre is often referred to as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) (Penter et al 2009). BPO has experienced rapid growth over the past decade in many countries. Despite this growth within the BPO industry which covers different back office operations, it is widely acknowledged that academic research specifically focused on BPO is still considered to be somewhat neglected in comparison to IT outsourcing and Information Systems in general (e.g. Borman 2006, Massinin and Miozzo 2010, Rouse and Corbitt 2004), and hence there is very limited knowledge in regards to understanding the impact this shift towards offshoring call centre operations is having on the consumer, the supplier and the firms engaged in this activity. In addition, this process of outsourcing customer support and sales to non-native English speaking (NNES) agents overseas has resulted in additional layers of complexity for the different parties involved in the offshoring process. Many firms, clients and the offshore service provider face significant issues due to the cultural and linguistic differences between the different interparty relationships (Forey and Lockwood 2007). Furthermore the methods and approach taken by firms around recruitment, training and management of overseas based call centre agents have been far more complex than first envisaged by the initial firms engaged in the process leading to further issues stemming from this activity (Borman 2006). However, these socio-cultural issues around language, culture, communication and trust have not been addressed sufficiently, with no clear concept or framework linking these issues together despite these issues being at the root of most issues surrounding BPO.
Hence, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on what research has been conducted to date in regards to Business Process Outsourcing, and more specifically call centre offshoring (CCO) in recent years. Despite the growth of CCO in recent years, an examination of the literature on BPO by previous scholars have pointed out that there are a limited number of academic publications on the topic of CCO (e.g. Rouse and Corbitt 2004, Pentner et al 2009). Furthermore, the literature that has been published cover a variety of topics from how to choose the best candidate for a call centre in an offshore call centre (Townsend 2007) to how emotions between interpersonal dynamics between a client and a call centre operator impacts the level of interaction and communication that occurs (Hood and Forey 2007). This shows that CCO is a complex multi-disciplinary field, which can be viewed from various perspectives and viewpoints but the literature analysis conducted in this study shows that there has been no consolidation of the work till to date create some form of theoretical framework to look for common themes in the diverse literature for future studies. On the contrary, the current research shows a significant fragmentation with no real connection at all between the academic publications apart from those which are written in a similar field. For example, a CCO related paper in the realm of ICT Outsourcing that looks at how to source the best call centre supplier (e.g. Borman 2005), does not derive any of the concepts and findings from a CCO related paper in the realm of linguistics which investigates how differences in the use of language by Non Native English Speaking agents influence the customers perception of a firm (e.g. Forey and Lockwood 2007). However, through a literature analysis this study systematically identifies the core themes that flow through the diverse range of research papers in the realm of CCO. This study identifies that despite the fragmentation of the focus and topic of the current literature, a common link can be established throughout all relevant studies when observing the topic from a socio-cultural perspective. The findings of the study are presented in the following sections. Section II identifies several underlying theories that will be used as a lens for coding and summarizing the literature. Section III introduces the core themes identified in the literature, followed by a categorization of literature based on the social exchange which occurs between the client, firm, agent and vendor which is also explained in further detail. Section IV provides an analysis and discussion of the findings in the literature analysis and links these findings with the underlying theories presented in Section II. In the final section of this paper, a summary of the findings followed by recommendations for future studies are provided.
II.
Underlying Theoretical Perspectives
The reasons why companies choose to offshore have been well researched and documented. Companies offshore as they are looking to lower costs, increase productivity, increase the quality of work and access skilled labour markets (Kliem 2004, Lewins and Peeters 2006). However, most of the literature currently on this topic currently puts a particular emphasis on the economical, strategic and technological aspects of outsourcing (Costa 2001), while not enough emphasis has been put on the social, cultural and psychological elements associated with CCO. Call Centres are often seen as the convergence of people and technology where the labour process is the main feature of the work (Taylor and Bain 2005). The fact that there is a high level of human interaction between the call centre operators and the end customers of a firm (Sharma et al 2009), it is important to introduce and utilize relevant theories which have a particular emphasis on the social-cultural elements of CCO which are addressed in the latter sections of this paper. The underlying theories chosen for the purpose of this study were hence selected based on the criteria that they would allow for the topic of CCO to be viewed through a lens which covered the cultural and social elements as well as provide us with a solid foundation to develop a conceptual framework that could capture the socio-cultural aspects within the CCO phenomenon. A discussion and justification of the selected theories is followed in the following paragraphs.
a. Social Exchange Theory (SET) Social exchange theory was developed by Hormans (1958) to better understand the social behaviour of humans within environments which involves some form of economic transaction. Social exchange theory is best understood as a framework for explicating movement of resources, in imperfect market conditions, between dyads or a network via a social process (Emerson 1976). The theory implies that individuals and/or organisations engage in transactions not merely for the sake of obligations, but because they recognize the social exchange element in it and build relationships that eventually will be beneficial to the both sides (Blau 1964). Social Exchange Theory has been used in past research papers to better explain relationships between parties engaged in ICT Outsourcing (Kern and Willcocks 2000). In particular, the underlying reason why firms engage in IT outsourcing cannot be determined on economic theories alone, but involves a closer, more in-depth look into the various episodes of exchanges that occur between stakeholders engaged in the outsourcing activity. This is because actors involved in the outsourcing
process are not only interacting with market forces (i.e. Competitors), but also amongst one another, where the interactions are not simply economical transactions but may also involve interactions which reinforce mutuality and strengthen relationships. The same concept holds true when observing relationships in a CCO environment, where transactional cost economics (TCE) (Williamson 1985) is not enough to fully understand what drives an actor to perform a specific action. In conclusion, SET may allow us to understand in more detail the social exchange that occurs between the different parties engaged in the CCO process along with determining what may be considered success and failure for the different parties involved based on the concepts introduced around outcome, satisfaction and dependency as per the introduction above. This is because the Social Exchange Theory allows us to look beyond just the economic factors at play within a CCO environment, and understand in more detail the socio-cultural elements which motivate actors participating in CCO to conduct and perform certain actions.
b. Language Action Perspective (LAP) First introduced by Flores and Ludlow (Flores et al 1980), Language-Action Perspective (LAP) is a theory which states that language is not only a means of communication of information or symbols between parties, but a tool which leads people to perform certain tasks or actions due to the fact that humans are linguistic beings. LAP focuses on what people do while communicating, how language is used to create common ground between all parties communicating and how activities are coordinated via the use of language (Schoop 2001). Thus, the focus of the LAP approach is that activities are performed through language, and communication is a primary action which facilitates coordination and interaction between parties (Ljungberg et al 1997). One of the key principles of LAP suggesting that people perform actions through communication (Schoop 2001) is essentially the core activity conducted by all call centres. Gans et al (2003) states that call centres are the preferred and prevalent means for companies to communicate with their customers. In a sense, a call centre constitutes a set of resources people and technological infrastructure (e.g. computers, communication equipment) which enables delivery of services via the phone. This communication over the phone is used to aid the call centre operator to conduct specific actions primarily the sales, marketing and customer care functions. There are some drawbacks and criticism towards LAP, one of which is from Suchman (1994) who states that the use of LAP requires a high level of discipline and control and, therefore, oppresses the users. There are many examples of Call Centres using scripts (Taylor and Bain 1997) which are a form
of suppression for the agents but it has yet to be seen if the use of scripts does in fact enhance or decrease productivity and performance. Hence, the Language-Action Perspective may allow for a better understanding of how effective and efficient communication between the customer and call centre operator is, and whether or not there is room for improvement through better language. Furthermore, LAP may be able to give insight into how communication is occurring within an organizational context, and whether or not this communication is enough to coordinate and facilitate the various activities required within the call centre.
c. Stakeholder Theory (ST) In business today, the stakeholders of a particular firm go far beyond the investors, suppliers, employees and customers involved with the business to include external parties. The stakeholder theory is important to all firms, not only integrating both the resource and market based views but adding another dimension on top of it the socio-political level. This means that the actions of a firm not only influence internal stakeholders, but have far reaching impacts all the way up to external parties such as governmental bodies, political groups, trade associations, communities etc. and even the public at large (Freeman 1984). The stakeholder theory is particularly important in order to understand issues and concerns around BPO in more detail, as the ethical and morale boundaries of the practice of shifting jobs offshore by firms has had mixed reactions from different stakeholders. On one hand, external stakeholders have been applying socio-political pressure due to the much publicised fears around the migration of call centre jobs to offshore destinations such as India (Taylor and Bain 2005) while from the perspective of internal stakeholders, BPO work is considered a strategic decision to reduce costs associated with running and maintaining sales, marketing and customer care activities via call centres (Borman 2006). The stakeholder theory also allows for better understanding around the attitudes, structures and practices that are taken on by various stakeholder groups, and how these factors impact the method for handling different relationships between stakeholders. In the case of CCO, the following four stakeholders can be identified through the current literature, and the relationship each stakeholder has with one another is displayed in Figure 1 below:
Customer: The clients / customers of a particular firm that make enquiries via call centres. Clients interact with employees of a firms call centre also known as Agents over the phone to address customer service issues, make enquiries or to purchase a service / product.
Firm: The business offering the product and/or service to the customer. Firms search for Vendors in offshore destinations who are able to maintain and operate a call centre on behalf of the firm.
Vendor: The offshore company operating and maintaining the call centre on behalf of the firm. The vendor has its own internal employees known as Agents who are responsible for interacting with the firms customers.
Agents: The call centre operators whose primary responsibility is to interact with the customer. Agents are recruited, managed and trained by the Vendor based on the requirements of the Firm.
Figure 1: Interaction between Stakeholders involved in Call Centre Offshoring
The stakeholder theory also states that every stakeholder on the activities surrounding CCO do so in order to fulfil their own interests. For example, customers participate in order to request for support or make further queries in regards to particular firms product and service (Thelen et al 2009) while Firms participate in CCO in order to reduce costs associated with labour, infrastructure and operations (Lewins and Peters 2006). Hence, it is important to address and identify the issues,
concerns and viewpoints around topics surrounding BPO through the lens offered by the stakeholder theory so that each of the stakeholders perspective is considered.
d. Cultural Dimensions Theory (CDT) It is well known that any form of offshoring work requires a cultural alignment between different parties involved in the process not only at the organisational level, but also at a national level as well (Hahn and Bunyaratavej 2010). Hence, it is deemed important to utilize a theory that allows for a systematic assessment and differentiation of cultures which stem from the processes surrounding CCO. For example, cultural differences between firms from a western country such as the Australia, and vendors from non-English speaking countries such as India are evident in the literature (e.g. Penter et al 2009, Tailor and Bain 2008) and should be addressed in order to properly manage these call centres. Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions Theory (Hofstede 1994) is considered to be the most comprehensive research into the notion of culture that measures countries cultural dimensions based on a number of dimensions:
Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) which indicates to what extent a culture shapes its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured and ambiguous situations
Power distance (PDI) is the degree to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and even expect that power is distributed unequally
Individualism (IDV) involves the extent to which individuals are more or less tightly integrated into groups.
Masculinity (MAS) refers to the distribution of roles between the genders in a specific culture.
Long-Term Orientation (LTO) is used to distinguish the difference in thinking between countries originating from the East and West.
From the literature, it is a well-known fact that outsourcing specific business processes to offshore service providers bears some additional cultural risks and creates new challenges due to the different ways of working. Furthermore, further issues may arise due to difficulties and differences in understanding different cultural norms such as social behaviour, attitude towards authority and language issues that stem from the interaction required between different parties from different countries (Avison and Banks 2008). Hence, the Cultural Dimensions Theory may assist in identifying whether or not the issues and challenges stemming from cultural differences also apply to CCO, and whether or not these cultural differences may be overcome through different means.
e. Synthesis The Social Exchange Theory, Language-Action perspective, Hofstedes Cultural Framework and Stakeholder Theory all contribute to gaining further valuable knowledge from a socio-cultural perspective on the issues surrounding CCO. Social Exchange Theory allows us to better understand how the establishment of Trust between parties engaged in CCO can influence success or failure; Language-Action Perspective allows us to better understand the language used to communicate between the parties participating in CCO, while Hofstedes Cultural Framework allows us to better determine what type of impact cultural issues will have on the parties involved in BPO. Finally, Stakeholder Theory allows us to understand in more detail the drivers and attributes surrounding all the stakeholders involved in the CCO process. These four theories guide this study in assessing CCO from a socio-cultural perspective and provide a foundation for the development of a framework that links various socio-cultural aspects of CCO.
III.
Literature Review of Call Centre Offshoring
This section reviews and synthesises the existing literature on Call Centre Offshoring to provide background information on the subject matter and to identify the gaps in the current research. The different perspectives researchers have chosen to examine CCO are presented in Appendix 2, and the frameworks introduced in Section II will be the basis for analysing the literature. The first step taken while conducting a review of the existing studies was to clearly define the boundary of this review. This is because the boundaries of what is considered to be Call Centre Offshoring literature is often confused with other forms of outsourcing such as ICT outsourcing (Borman 2006) and also with the outsourcing of simple processes such as cleaning and catering (Rouse and Corbitt 2004). Although there is an overlap between the various forms of outsourcing there are still considerable differences between the various types of outsourcing which must be taken into consideration when conducting research. Also, the field of BPO itself covers various different areas as per Table 1 which includes Supply Chain management, Business administration, Operations and Sales / Marketing / Customer Care. As the primary focus of this paper is to investigate call centres, it was important to make sure that the literature reviewed also had particular emphasis on the Sales / Marketing / Customer Care component of BPO. This is because the functions offered via call centres are generally related to customer service, help desk, telemarketing and order taking activities (Gans et al 2003). Based on the guidelines provided above, 30 articles were identified and deemed to be suitable for the purpose of this study as shown in Appendix 2. The literature selected for the purpose of further analysis was based on: (a) The studies focused on Sales / Marketing / Customer Care functions surrounding BPO and (b) The studies were considered to reside in where the overlap between BPO and offshoring outsourcing occurs as per the shaded area (Offshore Outsourcing) in Figure 2.
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Supply Chain Management Warehouse Inventory Direct Procurement Transportation / logistics
Operations Rand D Contract Manufacturing Analytics / Quality Control
Business Administration Finance HR Billing Indirect Procurement Payment Services
Sales, Marketing, Customer Care Customer Selection Customer Acquisition Customer Retention Customer Extension
Table 1: Examples of BPO, by business function (Gartner 2002)
Figure 2: Relationship between different types of outsourcing (Rouse and Corbitt 2004)
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These papers were identified through an extensive search using the University Of Melbourne Library Website, which allowed access to full-text articles within databases such as JSTOR, SCOPUS, EBSCO based on keywords (e.g. Call Centre Offshoring, Business Process Outsourcing, Offshore Outsourcing etc.) associated with CCO that were published between 2000 2011. Approximately 120 papers were initially selected based on the results of the search, and after reading the abstract of each of these papers, 58 were screened and considered to be outside the scope of this paper. Further examination of these 62 articles resulted in only 30 papers that were deemed to be suitable for detailed analysis. This decision was based on whether or not the paper examined had (a) Citations from other academic publications; (b) Been published in a credible journal / publication with a peer review process in place (e.g. Journal of Strategic Information Systems). These 30 papers were then examined in further detail, and detailed notes were created about the paper (see Appendix 1), including the abstract and key points. These notes then became the basis of creating the categorized table as per Appendix 2, which allowed for better comparison, analysis and review of the different themes and topics surrounding the literature. At first glance, the summary of the studies in Appendix 2 shows considerable differences between the literature streams based on the academic background of the study. For example, research papers from a marketing perspective took a completely different approach to research conducted from the linguistics field. However, a careful examination of Appendix 2 shows that while the topics surrounding CCO are fragmented and diverse, specific themes and patterns can be observed within the literature when observing which of the four stakeholder groups identified in section II were engaged in the CCO process. This was because the stakeholder theory states that every entity and or individual participating in the activities surrounding CCO do so in order to fulfil their own interests. For example, customers participate in order to request for support or make further queries in regards to a particular firms product and service (Thelen et al 2009) while Firms participate in CCO in order to reduce costs associated with labour, infrastructure and operations (Lewins and Peters 2006). A closer examination of the literature categorised based on the different relationships between stakeholders is provided below.
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i.
CustomerFirm Relationship
The studies surrounding the relationship between the customer and firm within the CCO process are primarily focused on two core themes which are Customer Satisfaction and Country of Origin (CoSO). These two themes are related because typically, customer satisfaction with a firm and the services provided is highly related to where the call centre operations are (CoSO). The first theme identified is related to the changes in customer satisfaction level towards the firm based on whether or not the firm has offshored its call centre operations or not. Recent studies have found that customers do not always appreciate being offered services from abroad and in some cases develop negative feeling not only towards the service agent, but also the firm itself (Thelen 2009). Furthermore, customer are dissatisfied with the services provided by firms via offshore call centres due to communication inefficiencies, poor productivity, lack of expertise in solving complex problems, lower service standards and concerns about privacy of information (Sharma et al 2009). This is a concern for many firms, as customers use the quality of interactions they have with call centres as a measurement of a firms commitment to understanding and meeting their requirements (Dean 2004). Also, several scholars have noted (e.g. Roggeveen et al 2007) that not only does this disapproval by customers of firms who offshore have to do with the actual quality of service provided as stated above, but also to customers perception of firms based on the agents Country-of-Service-Origin (CoSO) that is, where the customer perceives the call centre agent to be from which country. Hence, Sharma et al (2008) state that firms should be aware of the fact that the negative attitudes that the majority of customers have towards offshore call centres is not only because of the actual service levels provided, but due to the negative perception many customers have on being serviced by a customer service agent residing in another country. This implies that customers typically trust a firm less if the firm has its Call Centre Operations in an offshore location because they perceive the services are of lower quality compared to those firms running their Call Centre Operations locally. However, the current literature also suggests that customers do not have the same level of hostility towards call centre operations which resonate from a similar cultural background, but these countries may not be necessarily the ones with the lowest cost or with high concentrations of skilled labour (Roggeveen et al 2007). This implies that proximity of cultural dimensions (see Section II) between the customer and the offshore call centre can overcome some of the negative perceptions and hostility that customers have towards offshore call centres.
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ii.
Customer-Agent Relationship
The literature which focuses on the relationship between a customer and call centre agent from an offshore location primarily addresses two core themes which are Linguistic aspect and Customer
Satisfaction. Most studies assess the impact of language and communication on the overall
satisfaction levels of the customer. The first theme identified is related to the language used between the non-native English speaking agents and customers who generally come from English speaking countries (Hood and Forey 2008), and the literature states that problems and difficulties arise due to the language barrier that exists because of this difference. Hood and Forey (2008) through their study which analyses seven phone calls between a customers and call centre agents from the Philippines resulted in all seven calls having problems related to the inability of the agent to fully address the customers request , which caused frustration to the customer. Other difficulties identified include the agents inability to deal with customers who were complaining and frustrated; customers who were vague and rambling; customers who were aggressive and demanding; and customers who had complex problems and were confused (Forey and Lockwood 2007). Hence, proper language must be used between the agents and customers for communication to occur properly so that the correct actions can be undertaken by the agent to assist with the customers demand. Furthermore, the proper use of language can assist with creating common ground between the agent and customer, forming better understanding and trust which may help dilute some of the issues that are caused by language barriers. As the predominant language within call centre environment is English (Forey and Lockwood 2007), it is important that proper training of the English language is provided to agents in order for them to communicate with customers more clearly. These issues around language can be better understood when put into perspective of the Language Action Perspective (LAP) which was introduced in Section II. The LAP states that language is used to create common ground between all parties communicating and how activities are coordinated via the use of language (Schoop 2001). As the primary responsibility of call centres is to interact with customers over the phone in regards to sales, marketing and customer care duties, LAP which is defined by Schoop (2001) as people perform actions through communication is highly relevant to the core activities conducted in call centres. Putting the issues stated above into perspective, when there are issues around
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communication between parties, than actions cannot be conducted properly, which leads to further problems between the customer and agent. The second theme identified was how customer satisfaction was impacted based on where the agent was providing the service from. Studies by Khan et al (2011) and Thelen et al (2010, 2011) state that consumer sentiment towards offshored services do exist, and the consequences of this is that firms experience decreased customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and perceived quality when it comes to offshore call centres. The reasons why this negative sentiment towards CCO existed was deemed to be a result of the fact that consumers possess a CoSO hierarchy based on perceived service quality towards agents (Thelen et al 2010). This perception by the customer on the level of service he/she expects changes drastically based on where they think the agent handling their query is from. Customers experience higher rates of perceived risks when dealing with agents who they deem to be from overseas locations, and this may be because there are genuine concerns over communication, security and reliability when handling their queries especially when it involves the handing of personal data such as credit card information and medical records etc. (Thelen et al 2010). This perceived risk is increased even further when past experiences (either 1st hand or through a 3rd party) associated with the inability to deal with customer queries, slow response times, difficulties in communication and accounts misleading etc. (Khan et al. 2011) leads to even further mistrust between the customer and agent. To summarize, it must be acknowledged that customers view CCO as a practice that diminishes the overall service levels, and the perceived quality of the service offered by agents differ considerably based on the CoSO.
iii.
Firm-Vendor Relationship
The relationship between the firm and vendor is the most researched topic with almost half of the literature concerned (12 out of 30 articles in this literature review) being identified as the study focusing on this part of the relationship (see Appendix 2). Most of the literature was written from a general management perspective, and was primarily focused on how firms could increase the likelihood of success when offshoring business processes. The core themes and key findings from this research are explained in further detail below. Firstly, the literature states that choosing the right vendor based on key competencies, and evaluating the outsourcing decision thoroughly by the firm was identified to be a critical part of
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achieving CCO success (Borman 2005). Feeny et al. (2003) identified through their study seven critical business competencies that firms should consider when selecting a vendor based on experiences and approaches to CCO from other firms. As firms tend to have broadly similar objectives and considerations when outsourcing (Borman 2006), developing a decision making guide based on specific core competencies was seen as a plausible method to assist firms during the vendor selection process. Secondly, management of the relationship between the vendor and client is considered to be an important part of achieving success in CCO. Borman (2005) stresses the importance of managing the relationship between the client and supplier in order for achieving success. Not only did this require establishing multiple levels of communication at a managerial, operational and relationship level but also putting in the correct contractual agreements and key performance indicators (KPI) (Borman 2006). This is because of the difficulties firms face when trying to move away from vendors due to the high switching costs and risks associated with terminating an agreement with the selected vendor. Also, the high amount of dependency a firm has on its vendor once a relationship is established means that the role of the contract and KPI not only allows measurement of the vendors performance but also becomes an important part of ensuring that the vendor works in the best interest of the client (Yang et al 2007). Furthermore, managing and developing relationships at multiple layers between the firm and vendor also helped in building trust which was considered to be of particular importance due to the fact that a vendor may have access to a firms sensitive and confidential documents (e.g. business plan), while working with multiple clients and competitors at the same time (Borman 2005) Finally, outsourcing strategy is another important theme in this category. Different strategies and management methods around CCO were found to have different results in regards to the overall risk / benefit it provided to the firm. Penter et al (2009) and Lacity et al (2008) both emphasize the importance of aligning the outsourcing strategy with the business strategy in order to gain the expected benefits associated with offshoring. Lacity et al (2008) identified 13 benefits that firms look for when looking for offshore service providers ranging from strategic benefits such as helping businesses establish presence in new markets through to operational benefits like reducing operating costs. Based on what the firm is looking to accomplish from a business perspective, the type of offshoring strategy required changes significantly. For example, a captive centre (a direct branch of the parent firm established in an offshore location) may suit businesses looking to receive strategic benefits, where as an arms length approach involving a 3rd party vendor to provide the
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services on behalf of the firm may be more suitable for firms looking to reduce costs (Lacity et al 2008). In summary, a firm must take into careful consideration in not only selecting the right vendor and the right strategy for CCO, but also in regards to managing the on-going relationship with the vendor so that the chances of a firm achieving success based on their set business objectives. It is important to note that Vendors who are able to fulfil the expected competencies better may not always be the most cost effective. Hence it is important for firms to weigh CCO adoption on multiple dimensions, where determinants such as expectation, risk and environment etc. are taken into consideration, instead of just cost as the determinant which is considered one of the critical mistakes made by firms during the earlier decision making process around BPO (Yang et al 2007).
iv.
Vendor-Agent Relationship
The literature surrounding the relationship between the vendor and the agents is focused primarily on two inter-related themes: Human Resource (Agent) Management, as well as Training and
Recruitment.
As part of agent management, correct recruitment strategies and proper training to facilitate agents working in call centres is considered to be an important element of CCO success. As the labour process involved in CCO is the feature of the work involved, the agents who are involved in handling client enquiries is considered to be one of the most important factors in achieving CCO success (Taylor and Bain 2005). However, several issues and difficulties have been identified within the current literature around the relationship between the vendor and the firm which are as follows: Firstly, vendors face high levels of agent turnover (Townsend 2007) and difficulties around staff retention (Russell and Thiete 2008). The cause of this issue is because of the high levels of emotional stress experienced by the agents in an environment where demanding customers, extensive performance monitoring by management and repetitive nature of the work has meant that agents often get burnt out or fall ill (Taylor and Bain 2005). This mismanagement of labour processes by vendors is seen as a significant reason why attrition rates are so high within offshore call centres, and is why one of the core competencies that should be examined by clients when choosing a vendor should be one around people.
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Secondly, training and recruitment processes for agents needs to change as the nature of work conducted through CCOs also evolve. Russell and Thite (2008) in their studies point out that the work conducted by vendors is significantly changing from high volume, low value, routinized work to semi-skilled work that is far more complex. This has led to vendors applying intensive recruitment and training regimes, so that the selected people have the appropriate values and skills to carry out the work necessary (Townsend 2007). Furthermore, vendors have also introduced lengthier induction trainings that cover areas such as accent neutralization and inter-cultural training, as well as further technical training programmes around product knowledge and systems etc. (Townsend 2007) to ensure that the agents employed are able to carry out the tasks required. However, this intensive training regime enforced by vendors is criticized for putting too much focus on technical and cultural issues, rather than training agents on skills that may be used to deal with the high levels of emotional stress faced on a day to day basis (Townsend 2007). Furthermore, there are also research to suggest that despite the extensive training and rigorous recruitment policies that are being developed by vendors, it is not enough to properly address the core issue the problems which remain in the quality of interaction between the agents and customers (Taylor and Bain 2005). In summary, difficulties in applying the correct recruitment and training processes as well as high levels of staff turnover and burnout rates due to the emotional stress involved in working in these call centres have resulted in vendors facing significant issues around human resource management (Budhwar et al 2007). These issues are made even more complex as firms face a challenge of not only reducing cost but also being able to recruit agents who are able to provide quality customer service (Townsend 2007). These two issues significantly increase the risk associated with CCO, and a closer examination of the topic may be required to provide a solution.
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IV.
Discussion
The literature analysis conducted in this study highlights the fact that CCO goes far beyond the realm of just IT related products and services, and involves complex socio-cultural elements due to the various interactions that occur amongst the participating stakeholders. To examine the sociocultural elements systematically, a unique method of categorizing the literature based on the stakeholders involved within the CCO process was conducted in Section III. This allowed for various topics, issues and concerns surrounding CCO to be identified through each of the stakeholders perspective, as it allowed for topics to be grouped based on the interaction amongst the stakeholders as per Table 2. Based on the various themes identified, the study highlights the importance of socio-cultural elements including trust, culture, language and communication in regards to CCO that has been acknowledged in the existing studies. However, these elements have not been investigated rigorously or thoroughly in the previous literature. Hence, a discussion of these key socio-cultural elements and their role in a CCO environment is presented below, along with suggestions as to how the existing theories introduced in Section II can be integrated to provide a theoretical foundation for exploring these socio-cultural elements which helps us to better understand the CCO phenomenon.
Relevant Theories Socio-Cultural Stakeholders Involved CustomerFirm CustomerAgents * Customer Satisfaction * Country-of-Service-Origin * Linguistics * Customer Service * Trust x * Culture * Trust * Language x * Communication * Culture Firm-Vendor * Vendor Selection * Relationship Management * Outsourcing Strategy VendorAgents * Agent Management * Training and Recruitment * Trust * Culture * Communication * Trust * Culture x x * Taylor and Bain (2005) * Russell and Thite (2008) x x x * Borman (2005) * Penter et al (2009) x x x * Sharma et al (2008) * Cowie (2007) * Hood and Forey (2008) Core Themes Elements SET LAP ST CDT * Dean (2004) (Section II) Sample Studies
Table 2: Summary of the CCO Literature based on Stakeholder Relationships
19
a. Language and Communication Language and communication are two socio-cultural elements that have been highlighted throughout the literature surrounding CCO. It is important to note that these two elements are distinct, with language referring to as a means or tool of interaction between stakeholders, whereas communication refers to the exchange of information that occurs between stakeholders. In other words, language is essentially how communication is mediated between stakeholders. Both Language and Communication appear to be important socio-cultural elements when observing CCO from a customer-agent perspective. The literature around the customer-agents indicates that these two factors not only had an impact on the establishment of trust, but also customer satisfaction levels. For example, if there were difficulties in communication due to language barriers between the customer and agent, this led to lower customer satisfaction levels with the service provided by the agent, and also had a negative impact on trust. The importance of communication was highlighted again when reviewing the literature around the firm-vendor relationship, where it was highlighted that better communication between the firm-vendor led to improved relationships between the two parties. It was noted that the core activity conducted by call centres was to interact with customers and perform actions based on their needs. As a call centre environment only relies on verbal communication skills via mediated language, the literature states that the lack of body language and atmospheric elements made communication between stakeholders in a CCO environment very difficult (Thelen et al 2011). Hence, this study suggests that the Language Action Perspective offers a useful theoretical lens in investigating stakeholder relationships where communication and language are stressed (i.e. Agent Customer). Not only can LAP highlight how people communicate with each other, but can also assist in how to establish better trust amongst the participating stakeholders, through the use of the right language. This is because LAP states that language used between the stakeholders can assist in creating a common shared reality that eventually leads to a higher level of trust to be formed (Schoop 2001).
20
b. National and Organisational Culture Difficulties and differences in understanding different cultural norms such as social behaviour, attitude towards authority and language issues that stem from the interaction between the different stakeholders are all significant challenges presented by culture on the CCO phenomenon (Avison and Banks 2008). It is a well-known fact that the complexities and difficulties in understanding the notion of culture as outlined above has resulted in scholars proposing that it should be broken up into more manageable categories and parts (Avison and Banks 2008, Gregory et al 2009). Culture specific to a particular business and/or work organisation is known as Organisational Culture, whereas culture specific to a group of people within a specific geographical location is known as National Culture (Hsiao 2003). Both of these two distinctly different cultural levels play a significant role within CCO, and are discussed in further detail below. From a Customer-Firm perspective, national culture is deemed important due to the fact that the cultural proximity between the offshore call centre and the location of the customers has a significant impact on the perceived customer service levels and loyalty towards the firm. Both national and organizational culture are also deemed to be an important element in the FirmVendor relationship, as these two elements have significant impacts on the overall success / failure of the CCO process. Finally, the importance of organizational culture is also highlighted through the studies revolving around the Vendor-Agent relationship, where the process of recruiting and training an agent should allow for the agent to feel as he/she is an integral part of the larger organisation. Hence, a careful consideration of the cultural risks involved when engaging in the CCO phenomenon must be taken by the stakeholders involved as research suggests that expectations between stakeholders are generally better aligned in more similar cultures that tends to lead to fewer miscommunications, higher levels of trust and better teamwork (Hahn and Bunyaratavej 2010). Unsuccessful bridging in cultural differences in a CCO environment may ultimately lead to failures in CCO, and hence attributes drawn from Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions Theory needs to be examined in more detail to see if there is a cultural alignment between the various stakeholders engaged in the CCO process.
21
c. Trust Zucker (1986) defines trust as a set of expectations shared by all those involved in an exchange, and hence the notion of trust shares similar characteristics to those defined in the Social Exchange Theory. Blau (1964) when differentiating social and economic exchange states that the former is based on trust and the latter is based on contracts. What this implies is that social exchanges between stakeholders do not occur because they are forced upon through a mandatory agreement as such, but on the basis of mutual dependency where one individual obligates another. This notion of trust is thus considered to be an important component of many social and business relationships and has been considered an essential part of carrying out business activities. In the context of CCO, trust is considered a key component of CCO success, and plays an important part throughout all the four relationships amongst the stakeholders as it allows higher levels of confidence and faith to be established. For example, in a Customer-Agent relationship, trust may help dilute some of the language and communication barriers that occur when conversing, whereas in a Firm-Vendor relationship, trust allows for stronger, healthier relationships to be formed. It is important to note that trust shares a dynamic relationship with the other socio-cultural elements introduced in this paper language, communication and culture. Lee et al (2007) states that the development of mutual trust eventually leads to increased communications between stakeholders, which would result in generating even further mutual trust. Furthermore, their studies have found that stakeholders develop trust through specific actions over time, and thus is processoriented, not results oriented.
d. Conceptual Framework Based on the literature review and the common socio-cultural themes discussed above, a conceptual framework to illustrate the inter-relationships among these socio-cultural elements in the CCO phenomenon is presented in Figure 3. The inter-relationships are expected to occur across the stakeholder pairs, but the strength of the influence of each element may vary. This framework can be used to guide future studies to explore the CCO phenomenon, focusing on the socio-cultural perspective. Figure 3 shows the proposed Socio-Cultural Framework for CCO. It consists of the following 5 constructs as per below: a. Trust refers to the confidence or faith level between the stakeholders
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b. Language refers to a means or tool of interaction between stakeholders c. Culture refers to the knowledge and values shared by a particular society and/or organisation. d. Communication refers to the type of information that needs to be relayed between the stakeholders e. Customer-Firm; Customer-Agents; Firm-Vendor; Vendor-Agents refers to the different stakeholder relationships identified in this study.
Figure 3: Socio-Cultural Elements and its relationship with Key Stakeholders in CCO
The proposed framework as shown in Figure 3 shows the role of language, communication and culture in regards to the establishment of trust in a CCO environment. It suggests that communication, language along with national and organizational culture has an impact on the level of trust established between the stakeholders. The proposed framework suggests that communication between the stakeholders can assist in establishing higher trust levels (Figure 3: Communication Trust Arrow) which will in turn 23
strengthen the relationship between the stakeholders (Figure 3: Trust
Communication Arrow).
The improved relationship between stakeholders through better trust will then result in more frequent communication to occur between the stakeholders. As a result, social exchange such as knowledge sharing, mutual understanding and work based on mutual goodwill rather than economic benefits will become more prevalent between the stakeholders, leading to better results associated with CCO. Furthermore, the use of proper language to communicate also helps in creating a common shared reality between stakeholders, eventually leading to better trust to be formed (Figure 3: Communication Language Arrow) For example , difficulties in understanding customers request
by agents due to language issues often result in heightened mistrust by the customers, which in result lead to frustrated customers who communicate emotionally, rather than rationally making it even further for Agents to perform the necessary actions required by the customer. Furthermore, language used in a call centre environment stretches far beyond regular conversations, and is used because a specific action is required by one of the stakeholders. This implies that the language used in call centres requires not only need to be linguistically sound, but also requires good understanding of the context of why the stakeholder wishes to communicate. As interaction between stakeholders in a CCO environment is primarily done through verbal means, language becomes the mediator to communicate the exact actions that are required as per the LAP. Cultural proximity (both organizational and national) may also lead to higher levels of trust between firms (Figure 3: Culture Trust Arrow). Firms with close cultural proximity (both nationally
and organizationally) who are of similar size, and come from countries with similar cultural backgrounds may have higher levels of trust due to the higher levels of understanding that they have for each other compared to firms with completely different cultural backgrounds. The framework suggests that these socio-cultural elements are evident (at varying degrees) in all of the key relationships between stakeholders identified through this study, and that taking into consideration the relationship between these elements may lead to better results associated with conducting CCO activities by all stakeholders.
24
V.
Conclusion
This study has identified several knowledge gaps that were related to the lack of socio-cultural elements being examined by scholars around the CCO phenomenon. These gaps were identified by conducting an extensive literature review on the existing studies, while viewing the various relationships between different stakeholders involved in the CCO phenomenon using different theoretical lenses derived from a socio-cultural perspective. Finally a conceptual framework based o on the literature examined and the discussion surrounding the core themes surrounding CCO is presented. The study investigates and raises the importance of socio-cultural elements such as trust, culture, language and communication around the CCO phenomenon, and highlights the fact that there has been no holistic approach to examine the key socio-cultural elements which means that a full picture of the CCO phenomenon has yet to be presented. The paper also states that out of these sociocultural elements, trust is the most critical enabler of success in CCO for all stakeholders involved, but has been neglected by practitioners and researchers as their primary focus till now has been methods and strategies around saving costs. Furthermore, it also highlights the fact that socio-cultural elements present in one relationship have a significant impact on another. Literature surrounding better training and recruitment strategies by vendors when selecting agents may lead to better communication to occur between the agents and customers, which therefore leads to customers having better perceptions on the service quality delivered by firms. Based on the findings as stated above, this study offers several contributions. Firstly, it raises awareness of the importance of socio-cultural elements such as language and culture amongst practitioners within the industry as well as future scholars who are looking to examine the CCO phenomenon in future studies. Furthermore, this study also allows for existing literature to be integrated in more detail by utilizing the socio-cultural lenses that were introduced that may assist in identifying connections not recognized previously to be established between the different literature already present within the realm of CCO. Finally, this study identified different stakeholder groups that are participating within the CCO phenomenon, and utilizes various socio-cultural theories to explain interrelationships between these stakeholders.
25
Unfortunately, the connections that can be made between the literatures are currently limited, with research from different disciplines and academic backgrounds each having its own take on the CCO phenomenon. The result of this has been that there is significant fragmentation in the current studies surrounding CCO, and a distinct lack of theoretical frameworks around the subject matter which could be used in future studies. Thus, academics must acknowledge the fact that CCO is a complex, multi-disciplinary topic that must be tied together through the socio-cultural elements introduced through this study in order to obtain a more holistic understanding surrounding CCO. This paper acknowledges that there are limitations to the findings as the scope of the literature review was limited to 120. Further literature could have been examined that could have provided more insight to the topic at hand. However, due to the limited time scope imposed on this project, it was impossible to include more literature for the purpose of the study. Furthermore, no empirical data to validate the findings made is currently available and other applicable existing theories which are associated with the socio-cultural elements surrounding CCO may exist which were not examined for the purpose of this study. However, the four theories introduced which formed the basis of the of this study were comprehensive enough to address the socio-cultural aspects of the CCO phenomenon when conducting the literature review as well as assist in the development of the theoretical framework provided..
26
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Taylor. P and Bain P. (1999), An assembly line in the head: work and employee relations in the call centre, Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 30:2, pp. 101-117 Taylor. P and Bain P. (2005), India Calling to the far away towns: the call centre labour process and globalization, Work Employment and society, Vol.19:2, pp.261-282 Taylor P. and Bain P. (2008), United by a Common Language? Trade Union Responses in the UK and India to Call Centre Offshoring, Journal Compilation Editorial Board of Antipode, pp. 131-154 Thelen S., Maginin V. and Thelen T. (2009), Identifying Elements of Offshore service Ethnocentrism, Hofstra University, Accessed 12th September 2011 from http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/BIZ_mlc_workingpaper6.pdf Thelen S., Honeycutt Jr E. and Murphy T. (2010), Does perceived service quality affect country-ofservice origin preference?, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 20:3, pp.196-212 Thelen S., Boonghee Y. and Magnini V. (2011), An examination of consumer sentiment toward offshored services, Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 39, pp. 270-289 Townsend K. (2007), Recruitment, training and turnover: another call centre paradox, Personnel Review, Vol. 36:3, pp.476-490 Williamson O. E. (1985), The Economic Institutions of Capitalism, Free Press Wikipedia (2011), Business process outsourcing, Accessed 3rd of October from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Outsourcing Yang DH., Kim S., Name C. and Min JW (2007), Developing a decision model for business process outsourcing, Computers and Operational Research 34, pp. 3769-3778 Youngdahl W., Ramaswamy K. and Dash K. (2010), Service Offshoring: the evolution of offshore operations, International Journal of Operations and production management, Vol. 30:8, pp.798-820
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Appendix 1: Example Notes around the BPO / CCO Literature

Borman M. (2005), Improving Understanding of the Competencies Required of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Suppliers: The Case of Customer Management Services in Australia, AMCIS 2005 Proceedings, pp. 2642-2646 Abstract Information Technology enabled Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a growing phenomenon yet little research has been conducted to understand what competencies are required of suppliers. A case study of outsourced customer management services in Australia seeks to determine whether the set of competencies previously identified by Feeny et al (2003) is relevant and complete. Initial results provide some suggestions for refinement while indicating that the competencies sought from suppliers may be remarkably consistent across sectors at least for customer management. Key Points
Focuses on the importance of managing the relationship between clients and vendors Examines what competencies clients sought from suppliers based on Feeny et al. (2003)s seven critical business competencies for BPO providers
o o
Ability to motivate and retail staff Ability to replicate the clients core culture or values. Culture was seen to be flair and was close to organisational culture rather than national culture. Suppliers took numerous steps to ensure that this culture could be captured and replicated: from recruitment, through training to regular client contact
o o
Processes around what and how had only minor consideration Technology to effectively run the call centre operation at lower overheads was considered to be important
Location was deemed to be important from the perspective of availability and accessibility for labour.
Dedicated implementation teams and processes were established by both sides of the transaction. Critical success factors better customer service, lower costs, innovation etc. need to be clearly defined and measurable
31
Development of trust was seen as particularly critical and hence communication at a director, operational and relationship level was deemed very important for both the client and supplier
Forey G. and Lockwood J. (2007), Id love to put someone in jail for this: An initial investigation of English in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, English for Specific Purposes, Vol.26, pp.308-326 Abstract In the global workplace, there has been tremendous growth in business processing outsourcing (BPO). Many industries are establishing call centres, back offices and other offshore enterprises in developing countries in an attempt to reduce costs. This development has far-reaching implications for language in these offshore destinations. Despite complaints about the communication skills of non-native English speaking (NNES) agents in these outsourced destinations, the language of the calls has not been well-researched. This paper focuses on one area of the BPO industry, call centre communication. We limit the discussion to calls in the insurance industry, in one offshore destination, the Philippines. In this paper, we outline the development and problems faced in offshore outsource destinations. Based on an analysis of a sample of call centre interactions, we outline their generic structure, and we investigate some of the reasons for breakdowns in communication. We use some examples from the data and discuss the linguistic realisations to illustrate what is happening in such breakdowns. The findings from the analyses are important for the development of the industry, for the training of customer service representatives, and could help us understand why frustration is experienced by many. Key Points
Most of the call centres are the customer services sections of English-speaking banks, retail, insurance companies, travel agencies, IT support and outbound sales.
The reason for this offshore development is the growth in globalisation driven by cost effectiveness and improved quality of service.
32
Cameron argues that globalisation will have far-reaching, transnational, economic, social and cultural changes, and has implications for patterns of language-use, linguistic variation and change (Cameron, 2000a, p. 323).
The major issue in outsourcing to NNES destinations is the demand for English speakers in developing countries where call centres are growing
Inbound call centres are those where the customer calls in for service or information and are usually considered to be more demanding places to work as there is no way of predicting precisely the nature of the call, and often the agent is dealing with complex customer concerns. Inbound call centres account for most of the outsourced work in NNES destinations such as India and the Philippines.
Western businesses outsourcing their services to India, the Philippines, Malaysia and China must realise that although these countries have reasonable standards of English, they are NNES destinations English is a second language.
English language training packages have been designed and delivered with no research into the nature of the call centre transaction and where communication typically breaks down.
The English language training provided in BPOs does not match the demands of the job and is inadequate in the linguistic preparation of agents for the work required.
As pointed out by Cameron (2000a, 324) the talk of call operators and the language of the call centre is part of the corporate branding and are all part of the service offered.
Non-language training specialists, training the CSR on product knowledge, have unwittingly found themselves in the role of ESL teacher in these new globalised destinations and do not have the knowledge or skills to make the communications training effective.
Difficulties included the CSRs inability to deal with customers who were complaining and frustrated; customers who were vague and rambling; customers who were aggressive and demanding; and customers who had complex problems and were confused.
The demands of interpersonal language rely on more than just a proficient understanding of English grammar and vocabulary. A successful text relies on the agent being aware of the context of each call; the agent must appreciate:
There are fundamental language and communication problems faced by NNES agents in the recently outsourced call centre context.
33
Thelen S., Boonghee Y. and Magnini V. (2011), An examination of consumer sentiment toward offshored services, Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 39, pp. 270-289 Abstract This research identifies and analyses the underlying elements and consequences of consumer sentiment toward offshored services. This is accomplished by initially conceptualizing consumer sentiment toward offshored services, then developing and validating a multidimensional scale (OFFSERVSENT) to measure the construct. This research determines that consumer sentiment toward offshored services is instrumental in explaining consumers commitment to and global attitudes toward firms that offshore services as well as consumers word-of-mouth behaviour. The strength of these relationships varies depending upon the type of service being offshored. The results of this research contribute to the study of services offshoring, an emerging and fertile area of research for the services and marketing disciplines, and provide practitioners with increased knowledge regarding offshoring decisions. Key Points
Many firms are embracing services offshoring due to perceived benefits such as lower costs, 24/7 availability, and access to large, well-trained work forces (Gupta et al. 2007; Hamm 2007; Sako 2006).
Offshoring has been blamed for domestic job losses, salary stagnation, decreased GDP growth, increased domestic poverty, and lower worker morale (Boedeker 2007; Mandel 2007).
Decreased customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, perceived quality, and customer expectations are also documented consequences (Bharadwaj and Roggeveen 2008; Whitaker et al. 2008).
Results of adopting a services offshoring strategy on companies relationships with their customers are at best mixednot all customers recognize the benefits that this strategy provides to them.
In cross-national service encounters, there have been numerous cases of overseas service representatives being insulted and verbally assaulted (Ahmed 2006; McPhate 2006).
34
Combined with consumers dissatisfaction with perceived poor service quality by overseas agents, such subjective cultural prejudice might be a major factor that causes firms to pull their offshore services back home after myriad complaints from customers (Scott 2007).
Taylor and Bain (2005) indicate that linguistic differences are a driving factor in consumers negative sentiment toward service offshoring.
When customers encounter an offshore service agent with an accent, one perceived as foreign, they may associate this individual with lower service quality (Bharadwaj and Roggeveen 2008).
Research indicates that in a voiceto- voice encounter, verbal communication skills are key determinants of customer satisfaction because in such an encounter the customer does not have atmospheric or body language cues from which to formulate an impression (Bitner 1990; Burgers et al. 2000).
Culture influences perceived service quality (Dahringer 1991) with cultural distance being positively correlated with cognitive and communication gaps (Clark and Rajaratnam 1999).
Rao (2004) echoes this sentiment by contending that disparate cultural backgrounds can negatively affect interactions.
Consumers certainly were worried about miscommunication and unease in communication with overseas agents.
Certain experiences and perceptions of, offshore businesses influenced consumers outcome behaviors.
We found that not all services are created equal, with consumers appearing more/ less concerned about some services being offshored than others.
35
Appendix 2: BPO, ICT Offshoring and Call Centre Literature

Author(s) and Year Topic Research Method / Approach *
S Dean A. (2004) Marketing x Roggeveen et al. (2007) Sharma et al. (2008) Thelen et al. (2009) Cowie C. (2007) General Management Marketing x Marketing x Linguistics x Forey G. and Lockwood J. (2007) Hood S. and Forey G. (2008) Jaiswal A. (2008) Thelen et al. (2010) Khan et al (2011) Thelen et al. (2011) Gans et al (2003) Rouse A. and Corbitt B. (2004) Batt et al (2005) Linguistics x Linguistics x General Management Marketing x Marketing x Marketing x General Management General Management General Management General Management Social Studies x General Management o o x x o o o o o o o o o o o o * Systemic functional linguistics * Interpersonal Interaction * Customer Service x o o * Customer Satisfaction * Customer Service * Country of Service Origin * Customer Service * Country of Service Origin * Ethnocentrism * Customer Service * Outsourcing Strategy * Outsourcing Strategy o o * Outsourcing Costs * Outsourcing Strategy x o o * Employment Strategies * Vendor Selection x o o * Relationship Management * Agent Management * Relationship Management * Vendor Selection x x o o * Outsourcing Strategy o o o o o o o o C I T O
Stakeholders Concerned **
F C V A
Focal Point of Studies
* Customer Satisfaction * Customer Loyalty * Customer Satisfaction x o o * Country of Service Origin * Country of Service Origin * Customer Satisfaction * Customer Satisfaction * Ethnocentrism * Language and Linguistics * Training * Systemic functional linguistics
Borman M. (2005) Taylor P. and Bain P. (2005) Borman M. (2006)
36
Lewin and Peters (2006) Crane et al. (2007) Yang et al. (2007) Lacity M., Willcocks L. and Rottman J. (2008) Rhen J. and Zhoh YP. (2008) Penter et al. (2009) Budhwar et al. (2006) Mahesh V. and Kasturi A. (2006) Bryson J. (2007)
General Management General Management General management General Management x
x x
o o o
o o o
* Outsourcing Strategy * Operations / Services Strategy * Outsourcing Strategy * Relationship Management * Relationship Management
* Outsourcing Strategy
Operations x General Management General Management General Management Geography x o o x o o
* Customer Service * Outsourcing Strategy * Outsourcing Strategy x x x o o o o * Relationship Management * Training and Recruitment * Agent Management * Training and Recruitment x o o * Agent Management * Training and Recruitment * Agent Management * Training and Recruitment x o o * Agent Management * Agent Management x o o * Labour Issues * Agent Management x o o 5 17 11 19 o o 13 * Labour Issues * Agent Management
Townsend K. (2007) Russel B. and Thite M. (2008) Taylor P. and Bain P. (2008) Youngdahl et al. (2010) TOTAL
General Management Social Studies
Social Studies
General Management 5 6 7
x 10
* S: Survey | C: Case Study | I: Interview | T: Theoretical Study | O: Other ** F: Firm | C: Customer | V: Vendor | A: Agent
37

Understanding Call Centre Offshoring

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Understanding Call Centre Offshoring from a Socio-Cultural Perspective: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Underlying Theoretical Perspectives

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Figure 1: Interaction between Stakeholders involved in Call Centre Offshoring

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Literature Review of Call Centre Offshoring

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Supply Chain Management Warehouse Inventory Direct Procurement Transportation / logistics

Operations Rand D Contract Manufacturing Analytics / Quality Control

Business Administration Finance HR Billing Indirect Procurement Payment Services

Table 1: Examples of BPO, by business function (Gartner 2002)

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Table 2: Summary of the CCO Literature based on Stakeholder Relationships

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

strengthen the relationship between the stakeholders (Figure 3: Trust

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Appendix 1: Example Notes around the BPO / CCO Literature

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

Appendix 2: BPO, ICT Offshoring and Call Centre Literature

Focal Point of Studies

Borman M. (2005) Taylor P. and Bain P. (2005) Borman M. (2006)

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

General Management General Management General management General Management x

Operations x General Management General Management General Management Geography x o o x o o

General Management Social Studies

Jongkil Jeong - Minor Research Project in Information Systems

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