On October 22nd, Ole Frauen (Volkswagen AG, Germany), Arnd Huchzermeier (WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management) and Jürgen Mihm (INSEAD, France) presented the talk “Outsourcing and Offshoring in Complex Product Development Projects” at the 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA.
Abstract: Should a company outsource or offshore development? Globally operating organizations that develop complex products are faced with the question of how to efficiently decompose and allocate product development work across geographic, or organizational boundaries. The decisions must clearly depend on characteristics of the product (such as its architecture or its innovativeness). Based on an extensive data set involving all development projects of one of the largest car manufacturers worldwide, we study how different product characteristics affect the relationship between outsourcing and offshoring and product quality in complex product development.