Abstract
The aim of this study is to understand the key resources needed to ensure successful impact sourcing (ImS) initiatives in Malaysia. In this study, ImS refers to the effort of creating employment opportunities to marginalized communities by bringing simple, low-value outsourcing tasks to the communities. Using Porter’s Diamond Framework in ImS initiatives in Malaysia, we identified the availability of good ICT infrastructure, vibrant presence of SSO firms, and strong government support as key enablers of ImS in Malaysia. The challenges for ImS success in Malaysia include low English proficiency and high attrition rates among ImS workers and absence of micro-payments providers. Nevertheless, such challenges could be overcome by realizing the potential of ImS with full government support. These findings contribute to the formulation of potential strategies and policies in ensuring the growth of ImS in Malaysia.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Accenture. (2012). Exploring the value proposition from impact sourcing: The buyer’s perspective. Retrieved from http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-exploring-value-proposition-impact-sourcing.aspx.
Avasant. (2012). Incentives and opportunities for scaling the impact sourcing sector. Retrieved from http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/publications/incentives-opportunities-scaling.
Babin, R. (2008). Assesing the role of CSR in outsourcing decision. Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, 1(2), 1–14.
Babin, R., & Nicholson, B. (2009). Corporate social and environmental responsibility and global IT outsourcing. MIS Quarterly Executive, 8(4).
Barbe, F. T., & Triay, M. G. (2011). Is Porter’s diamond applicable to developing countries? A case study of the broiler industry in Uruguay. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(6).
Castresana, J. C. P. de M. (2013). Social enterprise in the development agenda. Opening a new road map or just a new vehicle to travel the same route? Social Enterprise Journal, 9(3) 247–268.
Chobanyan, A., & Leigh, L. (2006). The competitive advantages of nations: Applying the “diamond” model to Armenia. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 1(2), 147–164.
Digital Malaysia. (2013). Digital Malaysia—Digital Malaysia fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.digitalmalaysia.my/about-digital-transformation-programme/digital-malaysia-fact-sheet/.
Heeks, R. (2006). Using competitive advantage theory to analyze IT sectors in developing countries: A software industry case analysis. Information Technologies & International Development, 3(3), 5.
Heeks, R., & Arun, S. (2010). Social outsourcing as a development tool: The impact of outsourcing IT services to women’s social enterprises in Kerala. Journal of International Development, 22(4), 441–454.
Hirth, M., Hoßfeld, T., & Tran-Gia, P. (2011). Anatomy of a crowdsourcing platform-using the example of microworkers.com. In Innovative Mobile and Internet Services in Ubiquitous Computing (IMIS), 2011 Fifth International Conference On (pp. 322–329). IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5976179.
Hodgetts, R. M. (1993). Porter’s diamond framework in a Mexican context. Management International Review, 33(2), 41.
Karnani, A. (2007). Doing well by doing good: Case study: “Fair & Lovely” whitening cream. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1351–1357.
Kennedy, R., Sheth, S., London, T., Jhaveri, E., & Kilibarda, L. (2013). Impact sourcing: Assessing the opportunity for building a thriving industry. Retrieved from http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/0f234180-55d4-4054-b4c1-6b26a8ed544b-impact.pdf.
King, N. (2012). Doing template analysis. In G. Symon & C. Cassell (Eds.), Qualitative organizational research: Core methods and current challenges. London: Sage.
Lacity, M., Carmel, E., & Rottman, J. (2011). Rural outsourcing: Delivering ITO and BPO services from remote domestic locations. Computer, 44(12), 55–62.
Malik, F., Nicholson, B., & Morgan, S. (2013). Assessing the social development potential of impact sourcing. Retrieved from http://www.globdev.org/files/proceedings2013/paper_20.pdf.
Mann, M., & Byun, S. E. (2011). Accessing opportunities in apparel retail sectors in India: Porter’s diamond approach. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 15(2), 194–210.
Meng, C. C., Samah, B. A., & Omar, S. Z. (2013). A review paper: Critical factors affecting the development of ICT projects in Malaysia. Asian Social Science, 9(4), 42.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Monitor Group. (2011). Job creation through building the field of impact sourcing. Retrieved from http:www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/job-creation-through-building-field.
Porter, M. E. (1998). Competitive advantage of nations. New York: Free Press.
Prahalad, C. K., & Hart, S. L. (2002). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Strategy + Business, 26, 54–67.
Roslan, A. H. (2001). Income inequality, poverty and development policy in Malaysia. Presented at the Poverty and Sustainable Development Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV, France. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.196.3596&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Salleh, S. S, Arshad, N. H, Mastuki, N, Aris, S. R. S, & Janom, N. (2013). Formulating cohesive digital ecosystem of micro sourcing business process in Malaysia. In Science and Information Conference (SAI), 2013 (pp. 321–327). IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6661757.
Saunders, M. (2012). Choosing research participants. In G. Symon & C. Cassell (Eds.), Qualitative organizational research: Core methods and current challenges. London: Sage.
Smith, A., & Pezeshkan, A. (2013). Which businesses actually help the global poor? South Asian Journal of Global Business Research, 2(1), 43–58.
Sun, Y., Wang, N., Yin, C., & Zhang, J. X. (2015). Understanding the relationships between motivators and effort in crowdsourcing marketplaces: A nonlinear analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 35(3), 267–276.
The Star. (2014a). Falling commodity prices present downside risk to Malaysia’s economy—Business News|The Star Online. 24 Oct 2014. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2014/10/25/Pressure-on-growth-Falling-commodity-prices-present-downside-risk-to-Malaysias-economy/.
The Star. (2014b). Government to declassify some records—Nation|The Star Online. The Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/10/24/Govt-to-declassify-some-records-Najib-Move-will-accelerate-delivery-of-public-projects-for-peoples-b/.
The Star. (2015). Government to declassify some records—Nation|The Star Online. 23 Oct 2015. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/01/20/Budget-Revision-Najib/.
Wynn, J. D., & Williams, C. K. (2012). Principles for conducting critical realist case study research in information systems. MIS Quarterly, 36(3), 787–810.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge financial support by UKM Unversity Research Grant GUP-2016-048. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of the reviewers which have improved the presentation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ismail, S.A., Aman, A. (2018). Impact Sourcing Initiatives in Malaysia: An Insight Through Porter’s Diamond Framework. In: Said, R., Mohd Sidek, N., Azhar, Z., Anuar Kamarudin, K. (eds) State-of-the-Art Theories and Empirical Evidence. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6926-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6926-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6924-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6926-0
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)