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The aim of this paper is to extend a conceptual understanding of business process outsourcing (BPO) and its prevailing practices in the background of the post‐liberalized economic scenario of India. Efforts have also been made to discuss the major work verticals of Indian ITES‐BPO industry, which further reveals the fact of its domain expertise and in‐time delivery of services in a pre‐determined standard with least possible cost that has made India a BPO hub. The later part of the study deals with an empirical SWOT‐analysis that highlights the key factors that have significant bearing to the very flourishment of this sunshine industry.

The data collected for the analysis are secondary in nature and include various journals, periodicals, survey reports and on‐line business reports/news. The techniques like trend analysis and SWOT analysis in particular have been implemented for the purpose of study.

The paper found that in addition to the growth of traditional industries, patronization of this emerging sector is also a high necessity, looking at its socio‐economic contribution to the society on one hand and considerable amount of employment creation and income generation capabilities for the bright mass of the country that restrict “brain drain”, on the other hand.

The paper describes, analyses and critiques the outsourcing industry in India with reference to a core theory base. It is expected to be helpful in stimulating the analytical mind of the researchers and industry practitioner of the area for scientific decision making and furthering the research on this particular aspect of business.

Outsourcing is in a new era: an era of value-adding services, innovation and transformation. An era that shifts competition to skills and expertise where the main focus of key players in the industry is on the strategic impact of outsourcing services. As the outsourcing landscape is changing, so competition between countries for outsourcing work is reconstructing. It is no longer competition for low costs, but a search for superior skills, both technical and managerial, that provides the strategic guidance and operational excellence needed in the twenty-first century. While the professional and academic literature has extensively studied the comparative advantage of low-cost locations such as India, we know very little about the attractiveness of Western countries, such as the UK, for outsourcing services. To contribute to this end, the purpose of this paper is to examine the UK attractiveness in light of three key trends in the outsourcing industry: the maturity of the outsourcing industry drives more client firms to seek impact on business and strategic performance from their vendors; client firms and vendors deploy complex sourcing models that increase the importance of sourcing managerial capabilities, such as relationship management, vis-à-vis technical and delivery capabilities; locations with promising entry points to lucrative markets are becoming attractive for outsourcing investments as part of the firm's growth strategy.

The empirical base of this study is based on a comparative analysis of eight European destinations (UK, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic and Poland) to conclude that the UK, as a talent-base, value-adding country that also offers advanced sourcing capabilities, has positioned its economy to attract investments from both outsourcing vendors and client firms. While the authors acknowledge the relative high-cost base of the UK economy, they assert that the high service standards, access to skills, entry point to mainland Europe and the USA, government support and supportive infrastructure are superior value propositions offered by the UK in the context of outsourcing services.

The findings of this study highlight the contribution of Western economies to outsourcing and their fairly strong comparative position to specific line of services such as contact centers, research and development and specific business process outsourcing services.

The main limitation of this study is the use of a country attractiveness framework which has been mainly used for low-cost countries. The authors therefore acknowledge the need to develop a country attractiveness framework which is suitable for Western countries.

This study offers decision makers an extensive tool to assess their outsourcing investments by considering both low-cost and Western countries based on the value expected from each investment.

This is the first study on the attractiveness of a Western country, such as the UK, which the authors defined as a talent-based, value-adding and advanced sourcing (TAVAAS) country. Through the examination of its comparative attractiveness the authors highlight the potential of the UK and many other Western countries such as USA, Germany or Canada to attract outsourcing investments.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in India has always been characterized by ungodly hours, monotonous job, low perceived value, dispirited efficiency resulting to high attrition level. Notwithstanding the ever rising attrition rate, it has become critical for the companies to satisfy their employees in order to retain them. The purpose of this paper is to determine what and how job‐related and demographic variables are associated with employee satisfaction of the BPO employees.

Data collected from 500 middle level BPO employees was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. T‐tests and Duncan's post hoc tests were done to compare the various dimensions of employee satisfaction across selected demographic variables such as gender, marital status, education, age and tenure. Correlation was done to find out the relationship between employee satisfaction and various job characteristics as well as demographic variables and finally, regression was done to find out the actual determinants of employee satisfaction.

There is difference of perception towards the job‐related variables on the basis of gender, marital status, education, age, and tenure. Correlations revealed that interpersonal relationships, career progression, salary, company policies, working conditions, and authority have significant positive relationship with employee satisfaction and only accountability had a significant negative relationship with employee satisfaction. Regression revealed the significant determinants of employee satisfaction which were interpersonal relationships, career progression, salary, gender, accountability, and authority.

The study exclusively used surveys to poll work‐related satisfaction from the employees working only in BPO in India and considers only ten job‐related variables and five demographic variables for the study.

The comprehensive study of employee satisfaction is helpful for both practitioners and academicians as it helps in disentangling the perceptions about employee satisfaction and also explains the variances among various groups of demographic characteristics. This will enable organizations to correctly gauge employee satisfaction based on the job‐related and demographic characteristics.

Now that the study has revealed the dimensions of employee satisfaction and the crucial determinants of satisfaction, each of these factors can be individually tackled to ensure employee retention.

The present study illuminates the existing theoretical foundations regarding employee satisfaction by exploring the detailed and ample responses provided by BPO employees in Indian industry; this can help practitioners to make robust managerial decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behaviors of India’s information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees in relation to diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and social habits.

This was a qualitative research study, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Descriptive data were collected from a two-stage purposive sample of 28 IT-BPO employees from three IT companies and two BPOs in Bangalore, India.

The majority of interviewees reported having an unhealthy diet and/or sedentary lifestyle. Lack of time due to demanding work schedules was the largest barrier to diet and exercise. Call-centers were described as a social environment with a young workforce.

Given the qualitative study design and limited sampling frame, results may not be generalizable. However, the qualitative data suggests that India’s young IT-BPO employees may be at greater risk of lifestyle-related diseases than the general population. The data also suggests that interventions incorporating social influence may be a promising solution, particularly at international call centers.

There is a lack of literature on the lifestyle of IT-BPO employees in India. The results from this study provide qualitative insight on the motives for health behaviors of IT-BPO employees, as well as the barriers and facilitators for leading a healthy lifestyle in this industry. The findings provide the framework for future workplace wellness interventions.

While formulating strategy, managers may commit a series of small and unwitting mistakes the consequences of which accumulate and lead to a big business failure, the type that usually gets a lot of attention from press. These mistakes are akin to committing unforced errors in sport, which a champion player or champion team never makes. This paper suggests a way to avoid such unforced errors.

The paper uses case methodology to highlight how a series of unwitting mistakes committed during the process of strategic planning, cost a multinational engineering firm dearly in a competitive and value conscious emerging market

Strategic risks are dynamic and ever changing in nature, which can be best understood by analysing the relationship between causal factors behind the risk and their origins. The causal factors originate from certain major social and technology drivers that continue to shape our society since advent of industrial revolution. The key lies in understanding the historic nature of driver‐factor relationship and how they give rise to a particular strategic risk.

The driver‐factor analysis can also improve strategic agility over a period of time. When the insights gained from driver‐factor relationship is applied in the strategy formulation process using the balanced scorecard or any other conventional strategic planning tool, it can lead to a better goal and task formulation, which in turn can lead to better strategy execution.

This paper adapts an evolutionary approach to provide a deeper and better understanding of strategic risks

Using case studies of business process outsourcing enterprises in India, this study aims to discuss how impact sourcing is used to provide employment opportunities to persons with disabilities (PWDs) and summarizes the business factors associated with successful impact sourcing for PWDs.

The effect of impact sourcing on the employment of PWDs is a newly emerging phenomenon, and this study focuses on the impact-sourcing mechanism and investigates whether such sourcing contributes to promoting PWD employment in India. It does so by examining the business model characteristics of organizations through case studies.

The results show that effective training systems and operational styles enable continuous market competitiveness for social enterprises. The case studies also demonstrate that it is possible to expand businesses by transferring and replicating management know-how through an organization’s operating model. It also highlights the catalytic role of impact sourcing service providers in promoting formal PWD employment in a labor market where the informal economy is dominant. Central and local governments’ support for social enterprises may promote formal employment of PWDs, an internationally-recognized goal.

Impact sourcing for PWDs is an emerging field. This study offers a new contribution to existing work integration social enterprises literature by providing new insight into effective ways of achieving employment for PWDs through outsourcing business. This study highlights the important role of social enterprises in achieving formal employment of PWDs.

This paper aims to address the issue of gender inclusivity in the information technology (IT) sector of India. The main objective of the paper is to find out the factors influencing female participation in the IT industry. It proposes some policy initiatives to support involvement of women in adequate proportion in the workforce.

The study uses a unique set of data from 63 IT companies from three big cities of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru and Kolkata. An ordered logit model is applied to find out the determinants of female absorption in the IT industry. ANOVA is used to study the variations between and within the IT industry of female labor force participation.

Result reveals that the percentage and mobility of female employees in an organization does not depend on the turnover or the total number of skilled employees in the organization. It depends on the location.

The main limitation of the paper is that many IT companies do not want to reveal data about the percentage of female employees. If more companies could have been included, more accurate results could have been found.

The study discusses the aspect of gender inclusivity in the IT sector as well as the impact of higher skill on gender. The paper proposes some policy initiatives which can increase the number of female employees in the IT sector.

The study fulfills the need to know about the gender inclusivity aspect of the IT sector in India.

The case traces the genesis of NASSCOM and presents a decision situation faced by the new president who has to formulate a road map in the light of changed circumstances. NASSCOM has been an exemplary trade association. However, it faces challenges that can jeopardize the future if the industry. While the challenges do not have short term effect on the growing Indian IT-BPO industry, as the active industry ally NASSCOM's new leader has to ensure long term success of IT-BPO industry. The case can be best used to understand the IT industry dynamics through the eyes of an exemplary trade body and also understand how a trade association in emerging economies can play an important role to fill institutional voids.

The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated into three main pillars, which we refer to as the Triple-Win. The first and most obvious pillar is technology as a tool. The second pillar is the design and sustainability of the business model, without which the previous factor would be merely a cost and not an investment. And last but not the least, there is the purpose which gives meaning to the proposal, focusing on the human being and their environment. The DIDPAGA business model sits at the intersection of these three elements.

The aim of this paper is to make a descriptive exploratory effort to discern the role of IT exports in India's macro-economic indicators, like national income, employment and balance of payment in the post-Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization strategy in the 1990s. The paper also explores the vital historical developments of various dimensions of IT, such as its export growth, major software and services exports destinations, compositions of IT exports and domestic growth in India.

This study is based on secondary data, which were collected from Balance of Payment Statistics Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM),rtd and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY). This study has used descriptive analysis and growth models for studying the objectives. Major IT sector dimensions, such as total output, exports revenue, domestic revenue, gross domestic product, employment and exports of the software and service industry, have been examined for the period 1991–2016.

The findings suggest that over the last 26 years, the information technology industry's economic footprint has extended by more than seven times. Over the same period, direct employment in the information technology sector increased at an average growth rate of around 17%. Software and services exports earn, on average, about three times greater than the other three major services of India's current account of the balance of payment.

This study focuses on originality in examining the role of IT exports in India's macro-economic indicators economic reforms of the 1990s and also explores the historical developments of various dimensions of IT exports and domestic growth in India. All the work has been done in original by the authors, and the work used has been acknowledged properly.