“Outsourcing was in danger of becoming over hyped, with an exaggeration of its benefits and neglect of its problems and shortcomings. Michael Mol has served the literature and business practice well by developing a more balanced view that takes into account both opportunities and benefits, as well as limitations and adverse effects. For example, he includes the social cost of outsourcing that has previously been ignored. His main contribution is the following. Reasonably, and convincingly, using both theoretical and empirical argument, he shows that firm performance is an inverse U-shaped function of the extent of outsourcing. There can both too little and too much outsourcing. The book is very helpful in showing how the trade-off between advantages and disadvantages works. – Bart Nooteboom, Professor of Innovation Policy, Tilburg University and member of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy

Product Description
Outsourcing has become one of the key restructuring tools for companies seeking to boost their growth and business performance. As the outsourcing phenomenon has mushroomed, so a range of academic studies have sought to define and describe a unifying theoretical model. Outsourcing: Design, Process and Performance draws upon managerial, economic, sociological, historical and psychological perspectives to bring about a new understanding of how outsourcing design and the outsourcing process feed into the performance of firms. Blending empirical insights from a range of international cases and large-scale statistical tests with existing theoretical perspectives, the author argues that a negative curvilinear relationship exists between outsourcing and firm performance. A critical analysis of current outsourcing strategies, together with a discussion of future trends, offers a new agenda for academic researchers and business managers alike.

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by Kristi Oloffson

Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society — an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn’t mean much anymore.

The problem isn’t just a soft job market — it’s an oversupply of graduates. In 1973, a bachelor’s degree was more of a rarity, since just 47% of high school graduates went on to college. By October 2008, that number had risen to nearly 70%. For many Americans today, a trip through college is considered as much of a birthright as a driver’s license.

Marty Nemko, a career and education expert who has taught at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, contends that the overflow in degree holders is the result of many weaker students attending colleges when other options may have served them better. “There is tremendous pressure to push kids through,” he says, adding that as a result, too many students who aren’t skilled become degree holders, promoting a perception among employers that higher education doesn’t work. “That piece of paper no longer means very much, and employers know that,” says Nemko. “Everybody’s got it, so it’s watered down.”

Read more: time.com