Insourcing after outsourcing, A study of the opportunities and challenges in the insourcing process

Sammanfattning: Outsourcing has been a common topic in relation to business strategy for many decades. It is when an organization transfer some activities to an external vendor. In order to achieve a competitive advantage organizations use external vendors to perform the activities more efficiently and effectively. The global competitive environment has increased the use of outsourcing worldwide, concequently the use of outsourcing has changed the boundaries of todays firms. Lately, backsourcing has gained more attention, which is when an organization has outsourced an activity that was previously executed in house, and then bring it back into the organization again. Insourcing on the other hand, has been given less attention. It is when an outsourced activity that has not been executed within the organization previously, is internalized. The reason for choosing this research topic was that we wanted to write about something that could be applied to the “real world” and the decisions that business leaders face in their occupation. Therefore, when we were offered the chance to write our degree project for Alfa Sweden we accepted their proposal. We identified two main research gaps in the existing research regarding insourcing, there is no study that covers the insourcing process and the steps inherent in it. Additionally, how the organization’s capabilities are linked to the opportunities and challenges organizations face during insourcing, has not been examined before. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to build a model of the insourcing process and the steps included in each phase of the process. Additionally, to explore the opportunities and challenges that can arise when organizations go through the insourcing process. These opportunities and challenges will be connected to the company’s capabilities, meaning its resources and competences. In order to fulfill this purpose and gain a deeper understanding of this relatively unexplored field, a qualitative study was conducted. Eight semi-structured interviews were pursued where seven interviewees represented different companies belonging to the same group and one interviewee represented the perspective of an accountant firm. From the results of the interviews, we derived four themes, namely design of the sourcing solution, the insourcing process, resources and competences. Through analyzing the results of our study we have been able to create a model for what the insourcing process looks like and the steps included in the planning, implementation and control phase. This model can contribute and guide companies who are planning to insource certain activities in the future. Furthermore, our results revealed several opportunities and challenges and their connection to the company’s resources and competences. In addition to these theoretical contributions and practical implications we also provide practical recommendations for Alfa Sweden.