100Review of Related Literature and Studies

1.) Sustainable Development: A Literature Review

Sustainable development - as a well-defined concept - has emerged from a series of Conferences and
Summits, where influential people have tried to come to an agreement on how to tackle the “burning
issues” of the 21st Century: poverty, increasing inequality, environmental and human health
degradation. The present paper presents the most important “stages,” where the “actors” have
created and defined the concept of sustainable development and its principles.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Environment, Economic Growth.

Sustainable development has become the “buzzword” of both the academic and the business world.
“Sustainability” has been present for the last decades in academic papers, syllabuses of Faculties,
boardrooms of local authorities and corporations and offices of public relations officers.
Unfortunately, sustainability has become a “fashionable” concept in theory, but it is considered
extremely expensive to be put in practice by major corporations, firms and local or national
governments.

What people tend to neglect and forget is the evolution of the concept of sustainability. Although the
history and evolution of a concept might seem unimportant, it could help us predict the future trends
and flaws that will appear. And it will help us ensure that the 21st century will be “the Sustainability
Century” (Elkington, 1997, p.18).

THE “ALARM BELLS” More than 200 years ago, the first questions arose regarding the impact of the
evolution of our civilization could have on the environment and resources of our planet. In 1798,
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), demographer, political economist and country pastor in
England wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population. He predicted that the world’s population
would eventually starve or, at the least, live at a minimal level of subsistence because food production
could not keep pace with the growth of population.

1 Assistant Professor (Senior Scale), S. N. S. R. K. S. College, Saharsa PIN 852201 (A constituent unit of
B.N.M. U. Madhepura, Bihar, India *Responding Author
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He believed that the population was held in check by “misery, vice and moral restraint”. Malthus
wrote that “population, when unchecked, increased in a geometrical ratio and subsistence for man in
an arithmetical ratio” (Rogers, 2008, p. 20). Technological advances since that time have proved him
wrong. Through better farming techniques, the invention of new farming equipment, and continuing
advances in agricultural science, “production has increased much more rapidly than population, so
much so that in real terms, the price of food is much lower today than it was two hundred years ago,
or for that matter, even fifty years ago” (Baumol, 2007, p. 17).

The debate about Malthusian limits has continued in time, with many critics asking how it became
possible to have a six-fold increase in global population - from one to six billion – since 1798 and still
be able to more or less feed the population. The next wave of Malthusianism is represented by the
ideas and prospects presented by the Club of Rome. The results of computer simulations made by
MIT technicians were published in the well-known book The Limits to Growth (Meadows, 1972) which
focused attention on depletion of nonrenewable resources and resulting increases in commodity
prices. “Additionally, this model assumed that population and industrial capital would continue to
grow exponentially, leading to a similar growth in pollution and in demand for food and non-
renewable resources” (Cole, 2007, p. 241).

The supply of both food and non-renewable resources was assumed to be fixed. Not surprisingly
given the assumptions, the model predicted collapse due to non-renewable resource depletion. At
the same time, one of their conclusions remarks, “there is no extraordinary effort to abate pollution
or conserve resources.” However, as time passed, “most if not all of the Club of Rome’s predictions
for the next 30 years, from 1973 to 2003 were not borne out” (Rogers et. al., 2008, p. 20).
Another Malthusian worth mentioning is Lester Brown. He has published numerous books (latest:
Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble in 2006 and Plan B 3.0:
Mobilizing to Save Civilization in 2008) and articles dealing with the troubles that our civilization will
face after we will exhaust our fossil fuel reserves. In 1974, Lester Brown has set up the World Watch
Institute and later on the Earth Policy Institute. Both of them are presenting facts regarding the
global use of natural resources and presenting viable alternatives for our consumption trends (Brown,
2006, p.17).

The main purpose of the above mentioned Malthusians was to provide a useful reminder to the
society and to the local, national and international authorities that if we continue our consumption
trends we could find ourselves in trouble.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE CONCEPT The 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm,
Sweden, attended by 113 states and representatives from 19 international organizations, was the first
truly international conference devoted exclusively to environmental issues. There, a group of 27
experts articulated
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the links between environment and development stating that: “although in individual instances there
were conflicts between environmental and economic priorities, they were intrinsically two sides of
the same coin” (Vogler, 2007, p. 432). Another result of the Stockholm Conference was the creation
of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), which has the mission “to provide leadership
and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations
and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

This conference played a catalytic role in promoting the subsequent adoption of international
agreements concerned with ocean dumping, pollution from ships, and the endangered species trade.
It also adopted the “Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment,” which included forward-
looking principles, such as Principle 13167, that declared the need for integration and coordination in
development planning to allow for environmental protection. However, “the Stockholm conference
was limited in its effectiveness because environmental protection and the need for development,
especially in developing countries, were seen as competing needs and thus were dealt with in a
separate, uncoordinated fashion”. Some critics concluded that “the conference was more concerned
with identifying trade-offs between environment and development than with promoting harmonious
linkages between the two” (Prizzia, 2007, p. 21). Even UN documents acknowledged after the
Stockholm conference that little was accomplished to concretely integrate environmental concerns
into development policies and plans. A more integrated perspective that incorporated both economic
development and environmental sensitivities was clearly needed.

In 1983, the UN General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development
which was later known as the Brundtland Commission, named after its Chair, Gro Harlem Brundtland,
then Prime Minister of Norway and later head of the World Health Organization. In 1987, the
Commission published the Brundtland Report, entitled Our Common Future. It built upon what had
been achieved at Stockholm and provided the most politically significant of all definitions of
sustainable development: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The
definition contains two major concepts: firstly, the concept of 'needs', in particular, the essential
needs of the world's poor, to whom overriding priority should be given; and secondly the idea of
limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to
meet present and future needs.

In that period the concept of sustainable development acquired political momentum “through rising
public concern in the developed countries over the new and alarming phenomenon of global
environmental change, and in some ways it replaced fears of nuclear war that had prevailed in the
early 1980’s” (Vogler, 2007, p. 435).
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Some critics argue that “the Brundtland Commission Report’s discussion of sustainability is both
optimistic and vague. The Commission probably felt that, in order to be accepted, the discussion had
to be optimistic, but given the facts, it was necessary to be vague and contradictory in order not to
appear to be pessimistic” (Bartlett, 2006, p. 22). Others are even more critical: “Mrs. Brundtland
provided a slogan behind which first world politicians with green electorates to appease, and third
world politicians with economic deprivation to tackle, could unite. The formula was of course vague,
but the details could be left for later” (Benton, 1994, p. 129). But the fact still remains that the
concept of sustainable development was born.

TAKING THE CONCEPT TO THE NEXT LEVEL The next step was the UN Conference on the Environment
and Development (UNCED), which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the summer of 1992, an
unprecedented historical event with the largest gathering of 114 heads of state, including 10,000
representatives from 178 countries and 1400 nongovernmental organizations represented by
additional thousands.

The conference itself proved to be an international event on an unprecedented scale as heads of

government tried to make their mark on what was dubbed the Rio Earth Summit. The association in
the title, “connecting Environment and Development, was indicative of North–South bargaining at the
UN, in which demands for international action on the environment were set against claims for
additional development aid and technology transfer” (Vogler, 2007, p. 436). The key outputs of the
Conference were: the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21173, and the Commission on Sustainable
Development. All are quite explicitly concerned with sustainable development and it is thus, at the
conclusion of the Earth Summit that the concept truly arrives on the international scene.

The commitment of leaders from around the world to sustainable development was clearly
articulated in Agenda 21, the key document of the summit - a 500 page collection of agreed healthy
practices and advices for achieving sustainable development in almost any area on the surface of the
earth. Agenda 21 activities are organized under environmental and development themes: quality of
life, efficient use of natural resources, protection of the global commons, management of human
settlements, and sustainable economic growth. It recognizes that the persistence of severe poverty in
several parts of the world alongside a standard of living based on wasteful consumption of resources
in other parts is not a sustainable model, and that environmental management must be practiced in
developing and industrial countries alike. During the 1992 conference, it was agreed that to
implement Agenda 21, countries should prepare a national sustainable development strategy.

While sustainable development was the unifying principle for the entire Rio conference, there was
disagreement about its meaning and implications. The UNCED process attempted to provide guidance
in implementing sustainable development by laying out a set of principles and a plan of action based
on the concept. Indeed, Rio was less about debating the definition of sustainable
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development than it was about developing approaches to ensure its implementation. Some critics
argue that “implementing the principles of equity and living within ecological limits can only be
accomplished if social, political, and economic systems have the flexibility to be redirected toward
sustainability as well as integrated with each other and the environment” (Prizzia, 2007, p. 21).

In the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change, developed countries agreed on specific targets for
cutting their emissions of greenhouse gases, resulting in a general framework, which became known
as the Kyoto Protocol, with specifics to be detailed over the next few years. The U.S. proposed to
stabilize emissions only and not cut them at all, while the European Union called for a 15% cut. In the
end, there was a trade off, and industrialized countries were committed to an overall reduction of
emissions of greenhouse gases to 5.2% below 1990 levels for the period 2008–2012. However, the
complexity of the negotiations created considerable confusion over compliance even after the Kyoto
Protocol itself was adopted because it only outlined the basic features for compliance but did not
explain the all-important rules of how they would operate. Although 84 countries signed the Protocol,
indicating their intent to ratify it, many others were reluctant to take even this step.

Unfortunately, the USA has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The EU has ratified the Kyoto
protocol but this has not been enough. The Union has failed to reduce CO2 emissions. The overall
picture of the situation in 2030 is pessimistic. In relation to 1990 figures, the US’s contribution to CO2
emissions will increase by 50%, compared to an 18% EU increase (Camhis, 2006 p. 74). The Kyoto
Protocol remains one of the most debated international agreements between the “greens” and the
“neo-liberals.”

In September 2000 at the Millennium Summit held in New York, world leaders agreed on the
Millennium Development Goals, most of which have the year 2015 as a timeframe and use 1990 as a
benchmark.

These goals are both modest and ambitious. The Millennium Development Goals demonstrate that
“the livelihoods and well-being of the world’s poor are now conceptualized in terms of access to
opportunity and absence of insecurity and vulnerability” (Adger et. al., 2007, p. 194). They represent a
more practical expression of the principle of equilibrium between the economic, social and
environmental pillars of sustainable development. They include 1) halving the proportion of people
living on less than a dollar a day and those suffering from hunger, 2) achieving universal primary
education and promoting gender equality, 3) reducing child mortality and improving maternal health,
4) reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, 5) integrating the principles of sustainable development into
country policies, 6) reducing by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water.
Unfortunately, the world still has to tackle “this dangerous blend of indifference and concealment and
ultimately rebuild the trust between people, business and government, desperately needed if we are
going to stand any chance in
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achieving the Millennium Development Goals to combat poverty, disease and deprivation by 2015”
(Gorbachev, 2006, p.157)

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 was a landmark in
the business of forging partnerships between the United Nations, governments, business and NGOs to
gather resources for addressing global environment, health and poverty challenges. The
Johannesburg Summit reconfirmed the Millennium goals and complemented them by setting a
number of additional ones such as halving the proportion of people lacking access to basic sanitation;
minimizing harmful effects from chemicals; and halting the loss of biodiversity. Some authors
consider the summit a “progress in moving the concept [of sustainable development] toward a more
productive exploration of the relationship between economic development and environmental
quality” (Asefa, 2005, p. 1). The WSSD “fills some gaps in the Agenda 21 and the Millennium
Development Goals and addresses some newly emerging issues, including to halve the proportion of
people without access to basic sanitation by 2015; to use and produce chemicals by 2020 in ways that
do not lead to significant adverse effects on human health and the environment; to maintain or
restore depleted fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield on an urgent
basis and where possible by 2015; and to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of
loss of biological diversity” (Nelson, 2007, p. 166).

The Johannesburg Conference confirmed a trend, which appeared since the 1992 Conference, of the
increasing importance of the socioeconomic pillars of sustainable development. The environmental
agenda at the two previous UN conferences had been sustained by peaks in the public ‘attention
cycle’ of major developed countries. WSSD incorporated the concept of sustainable development
throughout its deliberations and was initially dubbed “the implementation summit.” Inevitably,
“demands for additional financial resources and technology transfer continued but much of the
debate had already been pre-empted by the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals in
2000” (Vogler, 2007, p. 439).

CONCLUSIONS If we follow all the conferences from 1972 to 2002 we can observe that there was the
shift in the political debate from a primary emphasis on environmental issues at the 1972 Stockholm
Conference, through a shared focus on environmental, social and economic development at the Rio
de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, to arguably a primary emphasis on poverty alleviation at the
Millennium Summit in 2000 and at the Johannesburg World Summit in 2002. This does not necessarily
mean environmental protection has been effectively sidelined, of interest mainly in its capacity to
alleviate poverty. Rather, it would appear that what began as a call to protect the environment in the
service of human development has become a more specific call to prioritize improvements in the
well-being of the very worst-off now and in the future. The biggest challenge of sustainable
development remains the global consciousness from households to households

2.) Design of Sustainable Outsourcing Services for Facilities Management: Critical Success Factors

Abstract and Figures

The management problems of Facilities Management (FM) outsourcing relationships occur because of
provision of low quality analytical, managerial, cooperative, and professional services. On selection,
the ideal service providers for specific FM outsourcing contractual procurement needs is of
paramount importance to achieve high quality FM services. This paper aims at reviewing the concept
of outsourcing in relation to facilities management and dealing with the importance of outsourcing
success. Factors of outsourcing strategies from the perspectives of clients and service providers are
examined and analysed through the Delphi technique in Hong Kong. The results reveal four main
drivers of FM practice through evaluation of thirty-five outsourcing critical success factors identified
by clients and service providers. Evaluation of the critical success factors from FM drivers shows that
there is an inclination towards FM competence, measurement of performance, cost effectiveness, etc.
from clients, whilst there is an inclination to the core skills, measurement of performance, allocation
of human resources, cost effectiveness, customers’ satisfaction, etc. from service providers. The result
of the study reveals an interesting understanding that the impact of outsourcing critical success
factors can be strategically implemented into the outsourcing strategies in Hong Kong’s FM practice.

3.) The sustainable development goals: A case study

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs [44] are an ambitious step towards sustainable
development, taking a much broader view of sustainability than ever achieved previously, yet
practical challenges remain, including how to implement change. The aims of this research were to
determine how an influential aquaculture company in Australia - Tassal, Tasmania's largest salmon
aquaculture company - perceived the SDGs, and to ascertain the motivations and barriers for Tassal to
work towards implementing the goals. Interviews were conducted with leaders, employees and
external business partners. Tassal was not aware of the SDGs prior to this project, but were open to
considering implementing them in their current sustainability practices. The survey responses were
analysed using the Values-Rules-Knowledge (vrk) framework of decision making. Key findings were: 1)
corporate and personal values were the key component driving Tassal's positive responses to the
SDGs; 2) awareness of the SDGs resulted in Tassal recognising the potential gains from engaging with
some of the seemingly less aquaculture-related goals (such as health and wellbeing). These findings
demonstrate that businesses can fruitfully engage with the SDGs, even without government
requirements or societal expectations, if they are prepared to broaden their interpretation of
business sustainability and be reflective about their values. The vrk model is a potentially useful
addition to current SDG and sustainability tools, such as those of the UN Global Compact, as a way to
diagnose organisational barriers to adopting practices aligned with the SDGs. An emerging area of
importance to social, economic and environmental sustainability – social license – was also identified
as implicit in many, but not explicit in any of the SDGs.
Keywords:

Sustainable development goalsAquacultureCase studyImplementationSocial license

4.) Uncovering the nature of the relationship between outsourcing motivations and the degree of
outsourcing: An empirical study on Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Prior literature has identified several outsourcing motivations, such as cost reduction and access to
expertise, and deciphered the influence of these variables on outsourcing decisions. In another
stream of outsourcing studies, researchers have gauged the degree of outsourcing, unearthing how
companies may choose to outsource a set or processes instead of the whole business function. In this
article, we draw on both of these streams of outsourcing research to study the relationship between
outsourcing motivations and the degree of outsourcing within a particular business function. We
probe the effect of nine motivation items on outsourcing decision through an empirical study using
survey data gathered from 337 small and medium-sized enterprises. We find that cost reduction, a
focus on core competence and business/process improvements are all associated with a higher
degree of outsourcing, but interestingly, access to expertise is negatively associated with the degree
of outsourcing. This finding suggests that companies that outsource mainly to acquire external
expertise outsource only a limited number of processes within a specific business function. Our main
theoretical contribution lies in uncovering the dynamic nature of outsourcing motivations, meaning
that as companies outsource a larger degree of their business processes, some motivation items
become more accentuated and others fade in importance.

Keywords Business process outsourcing, outsourcing motivation, degree of outsourcing, survey,

accounting

Introduction

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is an act of delegation of one or more information-intensive

business processes to a third-party provider (Borman, 2006; Luo, Zheng, & Jayaraman, 2010).
Companies commonly outsource processes in non-core business functions, such as finance and
accounting, call centres and human resources, to third-party service providers for various reasons.
The extant literature identifies a plethora of these outsourcing motivations, the most widely cited
being access to expertise (Currie, Michell, & Abanishe, 2008; Lam & Chua, 2009), cost reduction
(Borman, 2006; Saxena & Bharadwaj, 2009) and scalability (Redondo-Cano & Canet-Giner, 2010). To
complement and synthesize these studies, recent reviews of outsourcing literature (Lacity, Khan, &
Yan, 2016; Lacity, Khan, Yan, & Willcocks, 2010; Lacity, Solomon, Yan, & Willcocks, 2011) offer a
systematic and holistic summary of evidence behind the effects of the most important motivation
items on outsourcing decisions. These company-level analyses have improved our understanding of
how companies differ in their motivations to outsource business processes.

The BPO market has been growing steadily in recent years, reaching estimated US$322?billion by the
end of 2016 (Snowden & Fersht, 2016), as cloud computing and other emerging technologies offer
new opportunities to BPO providers to consolidate and grow their business (Singh & Tornbohm,
2016). Developments in the outsourcing market have enabled greater flexibility in designing
outsourcing deals. For example, in accounting, cloud computing provides a platform where two
parties (a client company and an outsourcing service provider) can jointly access the data and
workflow in real time. Endowed with greater transparency and control through, this new breed of
accounting information systems (AIS) allows the outsourcers to make outsourcing decisions on a task
level instead of outsourcing the whole business function (Asatiani, Apte, Penttinen, Rönkkö, &
Saarinen, 2014). For example, in accounting outsourcing, some may outsource a particular payroll-
related task (e.g. payroll calculations), while others may choose to outsource the preparation and
submission of financial statements.
This emerging complexity and flexibility in outsourcing calls for a revised understanding of
outsourcing motivations, which requires us to delve deeper from a company-level analysis into a task-
level analysis. Tangential to our research, Dibbern, Chin, and Heinzl (2012) challenged the modular
view of outsourcing, where an outsourcing decision on one process is viewed as independent from
decisions on other processes. Dibbern and colleagues observed a systemic influence on outsourcing
motivations in information systems (IS) outsourcing. We argue that a similar phenomenon can be
observed in BPO. While business functions such as accounting may have a modular structure,
motivations to outsource a particular process are not independent of the context of other processes.
Therefore, we theorize that motivations to outsource particular processes within a business function
are related to the degree of outsourcing. Motivated by the recent developments in outsourcing
markets and our limited current understanding of the link between outsourcing motivations and the
degree of outsourcing, our main research question is as follows:

Research Question What is the relationship between motivations to outsource and the degree of
outsourcing?

To address this research question, we reviewed the existing literature on outsourcing motivations to
build a conceptual model with nine motivation items: cost reduction, focus on core competence,
access to expertise, process improvements, scalability, rapid delivery, ease of use, fear of losing
control (negative) and concern for security (negative). We collected empirical data on the outsourcing
of accounting functions and the outsourcing motivations in 337 Finnish small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Our results show that companies that outsource more tasks seek to focus on core
competence, whereas companies that outsource only a limited number of tasks mainly seek external
competence and assurance.

The remainder of the article is organized as follows. After this introduction, we proceed with a
literature review on outsourcing motivations. In the third section, we build our conceptual
framework, which consists of a set of motivation variables and the degree of outsourcing. In the
fourth section, we present our empirical study. In the fifth section, we report the aggregate-level
findings of our empirical study, and, in the sixth section, the process group-level findings. In the
remaining sections, we discuss the findings and avenues for further research.
Review of outsourcing motivations

The outsourcing research has focused on two main areas: the decision to outsource and outsourcing
outcomes. The stream of literature on the decision to outsource addresses questions of why
outsource (motivations), what to outsource (what type of processes; transaction attributes) and how
to outsource (e.g. how much to outsource; how to implement control mechanisms) (Dibbern, Goles,
Hirschheim, & Jayatilaka, 2004; Lacity et al., 2011). The stream on outsourcing outcomes has sought
to improve our understanding of how outsourcing impacts business performance, ? (Chou,
Techatassanasoontorn, & Hung, 2015; Lee & Kim, 1999).

We focus on outsourcing decisions and, more specifically, on outsourcing motivations (why and what
to outsource). The existing literature has identified a plethora of motivations, ranging from cost
reduction to business transformation (Mani, Barua, & Whinston, 2010). In a series of articles, Lacity et
al. (2010), Lacity et al. (2011) and Lacity et al. (2016) systematically reviewed the body of literature on
outsourcing. Lacity et al. (2011) observed a total of 19 main outsourcing motivations used in the
literature. However, when the authors analysed the findings on the effect of motivations on the
decision to outsource, they found that only a fraction of outsourcing motivations received consistent
empirical support (Lacity et al., 2016; Lacity et al., 2011). These motivations were cost reduction,
access to skills/expertise, focus on core competence, business process improvements, scalability,
rapid delivery and concern for security (negative effect). An exploratory, qualitative pre-study on
contextual BPO motivations conducted by the authors of this article largely supports these findings
(Asatiani & Penttinen, 2016).

Existing research has analysed BPO motivations in various contexts, focusing on specific industries
(e.g. Currie et al., 2008; Lam & Chua, 2009), geographical locations (e.g. Martinez-Noya, Garcia-Canal,
& Guillen, 2012) and business processes (e.g. Redondo-Cano & Canet-Giner, 2010). Many of the
existing studies treat motivation as a static concept with a straight, linear effect on outsourcing. These
studies test the relationship between outsourcing decisions and motivations without considering the
degree of outsourcing within a business function. However, other studies tend to view an outsourcing
decision as a choice among only three options: selective outsourcing, total outsourcing and total
insourcing (e.g. Dahlberg, Nyrhinen, & Santonen, 2006; Lee, Miranda, & Kim, 2004). We believe that
such an oversimplification of the outsourcing arrangement prevents us from fully understanding how
outsourcers match their motivations with a particular outsourcing configuration.
Among the few studies that address the influence of motivations on the degree of outsourcing,
Gewald and Dibbern (2009) studied transaction process outsourcing by banks and compared
motivations among organizations that had already outsourced, those that planned to outsource and
those that had decided against outsourcing. The authors found that organizations that had already
made the decision to outsource portrayed a more balanced recognition of motivations than
organizations that had decided against BPO. Closer to the scope of this article, Redondo-Cano and
Canet-Giner (2010) studied the outsourcing of R&D activities in the agrochemical industry and
measured both the degree of outsourcing and motivations. They observed that in cases of highly
outsourced functions, companies were motivated by the lack of resources and production capabilities,
whereas in cases of functions with a lower degree of outsourcing, outsourcers were motivated by
acquiring and maintaining knowledge that was important to the core of their business while
increasing the economic efficiency of non-core components of the function.

Weigelt (2009) studied the relationships among companies’ degree of outsourcing, integrative
capabilities and market performance in the context of business process-enhancing technologies.
Weigelt’s findings suggest that a greater reliance on outsourcing (high degree of outsourcing in a
given function) leads to impediments in integrative capabilities and market performance. In a later
study, while evaluating outcomes of outsourcing, Weigelt and Sarkar (2012) observed that companies
outsourcing business processes that are reliant on emerging technologies have to make the trade-off
between efficiency and adaptability that occurs when the degree of outsourcing increases. The
authors concluded that differing objectives (in this case, efficiency and adaptability) require divergent
governance structures (Weigelt & Sarkar, 2012), and therefore, the degree of outsourcing should be
adjusted according to the objectives of the company. These findings further indicate the need for a
deeper understanding of how motivations interact with outsourcing decisions regarding the degree of
outsourcing in a particular business function. Although a few studies have investigated the
relationship between motivations and various outsourcing configurations (cited above), we note a
lack of a comprehensive understanding of how individual motivation variables interact with the
degree of outsourcing.

Hypothesis development

To study the relationship between motivations and the degree of outsourcing, we put forward nine
hypotheses. We selected a set of motivation variables for our analysis based on the reviews in existing
literature and our pre-study (AAsatiani & Penttinen, 2016). We selected motivation variables that
have been extensively studied, with empirical results supporting the effects of these motivations on
outsourcing decisions. To identify these motivation variables, we consulted the literature reviews on
outsourcing (Lacity et al., 2016; Lacity et al., 2010; Lacity et al., 2011). These reviews provide an
extensive analysis of the outsourcing motivations research and present a summary of motivations
used in the current literature.

The final set of variables included nine motivation items: (1) cost reduction, (2) focus on core
competence, (3) access to expertise, (4) process improvements, (5) scalability, (6) rapid delivery, (7)
ease of use, (8) fear of losing control (negative) and (9) concern for security (negative). Table 6 in
Appendix A presents a summary of the selected outsourcing motivations in comparison with the
existing literature and the pre-study.
Cost reduction is one of the most cited and examined motivations for BPO (Lacity et al., 2016). Cost
reduction describes the client company’s desire to reduce or control the costs of a business process
(Borman, 2006). The rationale behind cost reduction through outsourcing lies in economies of scale
(Poppo & Zenger, 1998), where specialized market agents can minimize production costs by
developing production capacity and by aggregating demand across several buyers. From this, we can
assume that a BPO service provider (a specialized market agent) possesses superior production
capabilities for non-core business processes compared with the outsourcer company. Therefore, we
argue that companies that are highly motivated by cost reduction will pursue a higher degree of
outsourcing. Our first hypothesis, therefore, reads as follows:
Hypothesis 1. A higher level of motivation to reduce costs through BPO leads to a higher degree of
outsourcing.

Focus on core competence describes the client company’s desire to outsource non-core tasks in order
to focus on the core part of the business (Premuroso, Skantz, & Bhattacharya, 2012). An example of
such a non-core task is accounting, which lies outside the core business activities for the majority of
companies. Outsourcing such processes allows a company to reallocate freed-up resources to more
productive and/or value-generating tasks (Gewald & Dibbern, 2009). In contrast, for a third-party
service provider, the outsourced tasks are a part of the core business (e.g. an accounting firm’s core
competence is accounting). Thus, the providers possess superior competence needed to complete
said tasks. Therefore, we argue that companies seeking to focus on their core business will outsource
more business processes:

Hypothesis 2. A higher level of motivation to focus on core competence through BPO leads to a higher
degree of outsourcing.

Access to expertise refers to an outsourcer’s desire to access a service provider’s expert knowledge
that is not available internally (Lacity et al., 2016). Outsourcing to access expertise is justified when a
company lacks internal expertise in a particular area and is unable or unwilling to develop the needed
skills in-house (Lam & Chua, 2009). Developing specialized knowledge and assets internally requires
considerable investments (Jacobides, 2008). In contrast, BPO service providers are able to provide
highly qualified assets (e.g. payroll and tax specialists) by focusing on specialized resources and
performing a continuous development of production capacity (Gewald & Dibbern, 2009). Therefore,
we posit the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3. A higher level of motivation to access expertise through BPO leads to a higher degree of
outsourcing.

Process improvements describe the client company’s desire to engage a BPO service provider to
improve and develop a business process (Lacity et al., 2011). The motivation to outsource in order to
reap process improvements is often associated with the desire to seek efficiency and effectiveness
gains (Buco et al., 2004; Gewald & Dibbern, 2009). Arguably, third-party providers are able to better
organize the outsourced processes due to asset specialization, extensive experience and economies of
scale. Therefore, a higher degree of outsourcing could carry higher potential for efficiency gains
(Weigelt & Sarkar, 2012). Based on the above, we propose the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 4. A higher level of motivation to improve a process through BPO leads to a higher degree
of outsourcing.

Scalability describes the outsourcer’s desire to scale up/down a process depending on the demand
(Currie et al., 2008; Lacity et al., 2016). Again, due to the economies of scale, BPO providers are able
to provide the level of scalability, which outsourcers normally cannot achieve internally. BPO
providers possess a large pool of specialized assets that could be allocated to a task on an on-demand
basis, whereas client companies would have to invest time and resources in order to scale up the
operations of any given business function. In contrast, scaling down involves the costly reallocation
and/or downsizing of human resources, which could be a painful process. Therefore, we hypothesize
the following:

Hypothesis 5. A higher level of motivation to scale a business process through BPO leads to a higher
degree of outsourcing.

Rapid delivery describes the outsourcer’s motivation to speed up the delivery of services by
outsourcing its components (Lacity & Willcocks, 2016). As BPO providers can devote greater resources
to completing a task, client companies expect faster delivery compared with an in-house arrangement
(Bandyopadhyay & Hall, 2009; Freytag, Clarke, & Evald, 2012). Thus, we posit the following
hypothesis:

Hypothesis 6. A higher level of motivation to achieve rapid delivery through BPO leads to a higher
degree of outsourcing.

Ease of use refers to the outsourcer’s desire to simplify the interaction with a business process and/or
its output through, for example, improved customer support or enhanced software. Improving the
ease of use of a business process through outsourcing may also decrease the level of frustration
associated with that specific business process (Lacity et al., 2016; McKenna & Walker, 2008). It is
assumed that, in order to stay competitive, BPO providers are incentivized to focus on delivering
superior customer service to their clients. Therefore, outsourcers would expect a better service from
external BPO providers compared to their in-house equivalents. We included this motivation factor in
our conceptual framework based on our pre-study conducted within the same population of SMEs
(AAsatiani & Penttinen, 2016). We hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 7. A higher level of motivation to achieve ease of use through BPO leads to a higher
degree of outsourcing.

In addition to the above-presented motivations for outsourcing, we include two motivation variables
that deter outsourcing. Here, our goal is to examine whether these motivations restrict companies
from outsourcing a larger number of business processes—in other words, leading to a lower degree of
outsourcing.
Fear of losing control describes the concerns that the client company might have regarding
maintaining control over the outsourced tasks (Lacity et al., 2016). Transferring control over a number
of tasks to a third-party provider has been identified as a significant risk factor that may result in
subpar performance and disruption in internal processes of a company (Sanders, Locke, Moore, &
Autry, 2007). McKeen and Smith (2011) found that the fear of losing control is an important factor in
guiding organizations to choose internally controlled shared service centres over outsourced ones.
Moreover, Bhagwatwar, Hackney, and Desouza (2011) observed that the desire to regain control over
tasks was one of the major factors contributing to backsourcing. Building on the negative impact of
fear of losing control on outsourcing decisions, we thus hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 8. A higher level of fear of losing control over the business process leads to a lower degree
of outsourcing.

Concern for security encompasses the client company’s concerns regarding the privacy and safety of
data and/or intellectual property associated with the outsourced tasks (Lacity et al., 2011). Security
considerations constitute an important part of the outsourcing decision and contribute to the
subsequent success of the outsourcing project (Nassimbeni, Sartor, & Dus, 2012). Concern for security
is negatively related to a company’s desire to outsource (McIvor, Humphreys, McKittrick, & Wall,
2009). In their review of the BPO literature, Lacity et al. (2011) proposed, ‘the more concern for
security or intellectual property, the less likely a client firm chose outsourcing’. Following this
proposal, we posit the following hypothesis :

Hypothesis 9. A higher level of security concerns over the business process leads to a lower degree of
outsourcing.

Thus, we hypothesize that the nine motivation variables identified in earlier reviews (Table 6) affect
the degree of outsourcing within one business function. Figure 1 presents a summary of our
hypotheses.
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Figure 1. Summary of hypotheses.
Empirical study
We study BPO in the context of accounting, which is suitable for this research for three reasons. First,
in most countries, regardless of the type of business or industry, companies are mandated by law to
record their transactions and conduct the associated accounting processes, such as financial and tax
reporting. Companies that employ people need to make salary calculations and payments, and again,
they need to record those salary payments in their bookkeeping. Thus, every company faces a
decision whether to conduct these processes in-house or outsource them to accounting firms. Indeed,
outsourcing is a common practice, especially among SMEs (BDO Finland, 2015). This proliferation of
accounting outsourcing has led to a well-developed accounting outsourcing market. Second,
accounting practices offer a clean, well-defined, documented and standardized environment to study.
The boundaries of the processes are well defined, and the outcomes are often standardized (e.g.
financial statements or tax reports). The outsourcing decision makers can be clearly defined, and they
are able to recognize these processes easily. All the above allow the use of more controllable data
collection methods and contribute to the content and face validity of the responses. Third, the
accounting function is well suited for modularization as it includes a variety of processes related to
sales, purchases, payroll, payments and reporting. The work needed to accomplish these processes
can be split between a client company and an accounting firm (BPO provider). In fact, it is common for
companies to selectively choose a set of accounting processes to outsource, instead of merely opting
for full outsourcing.
The accounting function can be divided into five major parts: sales recording, purchases recording,
payroll processing, preparation of interim and annual reports, and payments (Everaert, Sarens, &
Rommel, 2007, 2008). We operationalize the accounting function through a set of 22 processes (Table
7, Appendix B) that could potentially be outsourced to an accounting firm. All of these processes fall
under one of the five major parts of the accounting function. Practitioners in the accounting industry
in Finland use the same (or similar) set of processes to make outsourcing arrangements between a
client and an accounting firm. Furthermore, the set of 22 processes is aligned with the standard
contract terms between service providers and client companies recommended by The Association of
Finnish Accounting Firms. Therefore, the decision makers in companies that have undertaken any
degree of accounting outsourcing are familiar with this set of 22 processes.
Data collection
We collected the data in Finland, where accounting outsourcing is a €960?million industry, with
almost 4300 service providers on the market (The Association of Finnish Accounting Firms, 2017).
There are 356,790 enterprises in Finland, the majority of which are micro-enterprises (89.2%) with
less than five employees, and non-micro SMEs (10.6%) with less than 250 employees (Statistics
Finland, 2017). The micro-enterprises and SMEs are the major consumers of accounting outsourcing
services in Finland. Accounting in Finland is highly regulated and standardized across all industries, yet
accounting outsourcing market is highly competitive. The majority of accounting outsourcing
contracts operate based on some version of the service agreement (see Table 8 in Appendix B)
provided by The Association of Finnish Accounting Firms (2014). Further facilitating outsourcing of
accounting processes, there are currently 18 major, distinct AIS on the Finnish market (The
Association of Finnish Accounting Firms, 2015).
We collected survey data on SMEs. We refer to the definition set by the European Commission, which
states that an SME is a company with no more than 250 employees and an annual turnover of less
than €50?million (European Commission, 2003). The study was conducted in cooperation with the
Federation of Finnish Enterprises, the largest business federation in Finland, which unites more than
116,000 enterprises (The Federation of Finnish Enterprises, 2016). The Federation focuses particularly
on SMEs.
A representative of the Federation distributed the survey questionnaire through email. The email
message included a cover letter signed by both the representative of the Federation and the authors
of this article, and it contained a web link to the survey instrument. The cover letter included an
invitation to participate in the study, a brief explanation of the purpose of the research and a
statement regarding the anonymity of the responses. Both the cover letter and the survey
questionnaire were written in Finnish by a native speaker (one of the authors) and were reviewed by
all three authors and the representative of the Federation.
The survey was sent to a random sample of 5000 SMEs selected from the Federation’s member
database. The survey was open for 4?weeks. In addition to sending the original invitation to the
survey, the representative of the Federation distributed two follow-up messages during this period. In
total, 460 complete responses were returned, for a response rate of 9.2%. As we were interested in
studying the degree of outsourcing, we excluded companies that did not outsource any of the 22
accounting processes. We also excluded the companies that fell outside of the European
Commission’s definition of an SME. The final sample used for our analysis includes 337 responses.
Table 1 presents the sample demographics summary.

Table 1. Sample demographics (n = 337).

Table 1. Sample demographics (n = 337).
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The survey included three parts: (1) background questions, collecting the basic information about the
SME and the respondent’s role in it; (2) outsourcing questions, enquiring about the accounting
outsourcing arrangements of the SME; and (3) outsourcing motivation questions, addressing general
and process-specific motivations for outsourcing. The English translation of the survey questions used
for this study is provided in Appendix C.
Measures
In this study, all motivation variables were measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from
‘No influence on the outsourcing decision’ to ‘Very strong influence on the outsourcing decision’. The
dependent variable, ‘degree of outsourcing’, was derived based on the 22 survey items corresponding
to the accounting processes (Table 7) outsourced by a respondent. Therefore, the dependent variable
represented the sum of outsourced processes and thus was measured on a scale of 1 to 22. As we are
studying the effect of motivations on the degree of outsourcing, measuring the dependent variable
based on the count of outsourced processes was justified.
Based on the literature review, we measured nine motivation variables: (1) cost reduction, (2) focus
on core competences, (3) access to expertise, (4) process improvements, (5) scalability, (6) rapid
delivery, (7) ease of use, (8) fear of losing control and (9) concern for security (Table 2). Correlation
coefficients for all model variables are shown in Table 9 in Appendix D. In addition to the main
variables, we selected six control variables: (1) use of cloud-based IS for accounting, (2) company size
by employees, (3) turnover, (4) age of the company, (5) multinational operations and (6) industry.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics.
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In addition to measuring overall motivations against the degree of outsourcing, we asked the
respondents to indicate the most important outsourcing motivation for each process that they had
indicated to outsource. This was done through a drop-down menu of the seven positive motivation
items.
Findings and analysis—aggregate level
The objective of our research is to study the degree of BPO. Thus, the topic area falls under the study
of event frequencies, and a count data analysis is an apt method to analyse such problems (Kauffman,
Techatassanasoontorn, & Wang, 2012). We adopt a negative binomial model that allows our
dependent variable, degree of outsourcing, to be more dispersed, which is often the case in the SME
context.
We let CntOutProci be a random variable capturing the count of outsourced processes by the
company i. Then, we specify the following functional form, f, to model the number of outsourced
processes

??????????????????????=??
(????????,????????,????????,????????,????????,????????,????????,????????,????????,????????????
,??????????,??????????????,????????,??????????????????,????????????????
_??????????)CntOutProci=f(COSi,FOCi,EXPi,IMPi,SCLi,RPDi,EASi,CTLi,SECi,CLOUDi,EMPLi,SMEAGEi,MN
Ci,TURNOVERi,INDUSTRY_TYPEi)
(1)
where variables COS, FOC, EXP, IMP, SCL, RPD, EAS, CTL and SEC refer to the company’s motivations,
namely, cost reduction, focus on core competences, access to expertise, business improvements,
scalability, rapid delivery, ease of use, fear of losing control and security concerns, respectively.
Variables CLOUD, EMPL, SMEAGE, MNC, TURNOVER and INDUSTRY_TYPE are control variables in the
model. CLOUD is a dummy variable for the cloud platform that takes a value of 1 if the company has
cloud access and 0 otherwise. EMPL is the total number of employees in the company, SMEAGE
captures the age of the company in years, MNC is a dummy for multinational company (which takes a
value of 1 if it operates in more than one country and 0 otherwise) and TURNOVER captures the
company’s annual turnover. Finally, INDUSTRY_TYPE is a dummy variable for the type of industry.
Industry type is divided into three categories, primary, secondary and tertiary, where the primary
sector serves as the basis for comparison.
Due to the special nature of our dependent variable, CntOutProc, we cannot apply the ordinary least
squares method. Therefore, we view this process as a negative binomial1 and model it as follows

??(??????????????????????)=??-??????????????????????????????????????????????????!
for??????????????????????=1,2,…,??f(CntOutProci)=e-?i?iCntOutProciCntOutProci!
forCntOutProci=1,2,…,n
(2)
where ????i is specified as follows

???=??(????ß+e??)?i=e(xiß+ei)
(3)
where xi are variables specified in the function in Equation (1), and ßß are the corresponding response
parameters. We write ????i as ???=?????????i=µidi . To obtain an unconditional distribution, as in
Equation (2), we specify the gamma distribution for ????di . The details of this specification are
provided in Appendix E. We estimate the model using the maximum likelihood method.
Aggregate-level results
The results of our model are summarized in Table 3. We observe a significant relationship between
the degree of outsourcing and five motivation variables (Table 1). We find a significant relationship
between motivation to reduce costs and an increase in the degree of outsourcing. Thus, Hypothesis 1
is supported. As expected, a stronger motivation to reduce and control costs leads companies to
outsource a larger number of tasks. In line with Hypothesis 2, we observe a strong relationship
between companies’ desire to focus on the core business and a higher degree of outsourcing.
According to the results, the motivation to focus on core competence appears to be the strongest
driver of the degree of outsourcing. We observe a significant positive relationship between process
improvement and a higher degree of outsourcing. This result supports Hypothesis 4. We also observe
a significant negative relationship between the degree of outsourcing and fear of losing control. Thus,
Hypothesis 8 is supported. The factor appears to play a negative role in determining the degree of
outsourcing.

Table 3. Results of count regression.

Table 3. Results of count regression.
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We observe a statistically significant relationship between access to expertise and the degree of
outsourcing. However, contrary to our expectations, access to expertise is associated with a lower
degree of outsourcing. This means that a stronger desire to access external expertise leads companies
to outsource fewer processes. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is not supported. This is a surprising and
interesting result that warrants further discussion.
Concerning the control variables, we note statistically significant effects of the use of cloud-based IS
and the age of the company (negative). A potential explanation for the effect of cloud-based IS could
be the fact that cloud-based systems make it easier to disseminate digital information between the
outsourcer and the outsourcing service provider. Also, these systems allow the design of optimal
arrangements to increase collaboration and transparency by providing a platform in the form of a
cloud-based AIS endowing companies with tools to more efficiently (re)allocate the accounting
processes between the client company and the accountant. The finding that younger companies seem
to outsource a larger degree of processes probably stems from the need to focus on the growth of the
business in the nascent phases of the company resulting in a relatively strong need to outsource non-
core business processes.
To aid in the interpretation of our results, we conducted additional analysis of marginal effects and
visualized its results. We can get a better understanding of the model if we examine the marginal
effects of the explanatory variables. The marginal effects analysis calculates the unit change in the
predicted number of outsourced processes in response to a unit change in the explanatory variable by
holding all other variables at their means. This allows us to gauge the sensitivity of the firms with
respect to their motivations to outsource. The results indicate that the firms are more sensitive to
motivation variables to focus on core competence and to access expertise (see Table 4). A unit change
in a firm’s motivation to focus on core competence leads to the outsourcing of one more process
(1.05), whereas a one-unit increase in the motivation to access expertise leads to more than a one-
unit decrease in outsourced processes (–1.33). In practical terms, this means that the motivations to
focus on core business and access to expertise have a major role in determining the number of
outsourced processes.

Table 4. Marginal effects.

Table 4. Marginal effects.
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Furthermore, to demonstrate the sensitivity of the variables, we have visualized the results of the
regression model using simulation (see Figure 2). The simulation is carried out for each of the
motivation variables using parameters of the model from Table 3 by fixing other variables at their
mean values. The visualization clearly demonstrates the size of the effect, confirming the conclusions
drawn from the marginal effects table (Table 4), discussed above.
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Figure 2. Simulated effect size based on the regression model.
Findings and analysis—process group level
In addition to probing the relationship between outsourcing motivations and the degree of
outsourcing, we looked into the most important outsourcing motivations for each major part of the
accounting function. To group the accounting processes into distinct parts, we used the categorization
by Everaert et al. (2007): sales, purchases, payroll, reporting and payments. In Table 10 in Appendix F,
we have reported the responses to the main motivation items for each process (P1–P22) and process
group (sales, purchases, payroll, reporting and payments).
We use probit model to evaluate the relative importance of each of the seven motivations on each of
the outsourced processes that are grouped into five major categories. Let Salesi, Purchasei, Payrolli,
Reportingi and Paymenti be the outsourced process for the company i for processes pertaining to
sales, purchase, payroll, reporting and payment, respectively (please see Table 7 in Appendix B for
categorization of 22 outsourced processes into the five major categories). Let IND_COS, IND_FOC,
IND_EXP, IND_IMP, IND_SCL, IND_RPD and IND_EAS be the indicator variables pertaining to the
importance of cost reduction, focus on core competence, access to expertise, business improvements,
scalability, rapid delivery and ease of use, respectively, that takes a value of 1 if the company i stated
that individual motivation to be the most important for their outsourcing decision, otherwise it is 0.
Thus, we model the following

????????????=a0+a1??????_????????+a2??????_????????+a3??????_????????+a4??????_????????
+a5??????_????????+a6??????_????????+a7??????_????????+e????????????
Salesi=a0+a1IND_COSi+a2IND_FOCi+a3IND_EXPi+a4IND_IMPi+a5IND_SCLi+a6IND_RPDi+a7IND_EASi+
eiSales
(4)

????????h????????=??0+??1??????_????????+??2??????_????????+??3??????_????????+??4??????
_????????+??5??????_????????+??6??????_????????+??7??????_????????+e????????h????????
Purchasei=?0+?1IND_COSi+?2IND_FOCi+?3IND_EXPi+?4IND_IMPi+?5IND_SCLi+?6IND_RPDi+?
7IND_EASi+eiPurchase
(5)

????????????????=??0+??1??????_????????+??2??????_????????+??3??????_????????+??4??????
_????????+??5??????_????????+??6??????_????????+??7??????_????????+e????????????????
Payrolli=?0+?1IND_COSi+?2IND_FOCi+?3IND_EXPi+?4IND_IMPi+?5IND_SCLi+?6IND_RPDi+?
7IND_EASi+eiPyaroll
(6)

????????????????????=??0+??1??????_????????+??2??????_????????+??3??????_????????+??
4??????_????????+??5??????_????????+??6??????_????????+??7??????_????????
+e????????????????????
Reportingi=p0+p1IND_COSi+p2IND_FOCi+p3IND_EXPi+p4IND_IMPi+p5IND_SCLi+p6IND_RPDi+p7IND_
EASi+eiReporting
(7)

????????????????=??0+??1??????_????????+??2??????_????????+??3??????_????????+??4??????
_????????+??5??????_????????+??6??????_????????+??7??????_????????+e????????????????
Paymenti=?0+?1IND_COSi+?2IND_FOCi+?3IND_EXPi+?4IND_IMPi+?5IND_SCLi+?6IND_RPDi+?
7IND_EASi+eiPayment
(8)
The error term ??=(e????????????,e????????
h????????,e????????????????,e????????????????????,S=(eiSales,eiPurchase,eiPayroll,eiReporting,
eiPayment) is distributed normal, that is, ??~??(0,??2??)S~N(0,s2I) . We use Bayesian method to
estimate the model. Along with data augmentation technique, we use Markov chain Monte Carlo
(MCMC) method to run 50,000 iterations of which last 10,000 iterations are used for parameter
inference.
Process group-level results
The results of our model are summarized in Table 5. Our results show that with exception of
reporting, all the studied outsourcing motivations were positively associated with outsourcing of
accounting processes. However, there are differences in the strengths of the effect. For example,
while it appears that access to expertise is the most important motivation factor to outsource payroll
and payments, focus on core competences seems to be the main motivation for outsourcing
transaction-related processes. Concerning the processes within reporting, which were outsourced the
most in our data set (see Table 10 in Appendix F), the results suggest access to expertise and focus on
core competence are the main motivations for outsourcing those processes.

Table 5. Importance of motivation on outsourced process.

Table 5. Importance of motivation on outsourced process.
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Discussion
In this article, we set out to better understand the relationship between motivations to outsource and
the degree of outsourcing within a business function in the context of SMEs. Our purpose was to
critically analyse the outsourcing motivations cited in the existing literature and propose a conceptual
basis for future studies. Next, we will present the implications of our research to theory and practice.
Implications for theory
Even in the early days of outsourcing, researchers proposed that while efficiency-focused motivations
have a major role in outsourcing decisions, strategy-focused motivations could also play a key part in
the decision to outsource particular functions (McLellan, Marcolin, & Beamish, 1995; Gambal,
Kotlarsky, & Asatiani, 2018). More recently, Weigelt and Sarkar (2012) outlined two main desired
organizational outcomes of outsourcing, which are broadly referred to as efficiency and adaptability.
We observe a similar trend in our findings, where the dividing line among motivations is drawn
between the desire for efficiency (related to utilization of supply-side economies of scale) and the
desire to seek for external expertise (drawing on the access to specialized resources on the market).
Our key contribution lies in uncovering the differences in the relationship between these groups of
motivations and the degree of outsourcing. We would like to highlight two specific theoretical
implications.
Our first theoretical implication concerns the strength of various motivations and the degree of
outsourcing. As hypothesized, the three motivation variables associated with efficiency (cost
reduction, focus on core competence and business/process improvements) turned out to be
positively related to the degree of outsourcing. These efficiency-related benefits of BPO emerge
mainly as a result of the supply-side economies of scale and scope (Poppo & Zenger, 1998). Therefore,
for a company to be able to fully harness these benefits, a larger degree (scale) of the processes
within the specific business function should be outsourced. Following this reasoning, a sound
theoretical argument drives the strong positive relationship between efficiency-related motivations
and the degree of outsourcing.
Interestingly, our results suggest that not all motivation items work in the same way: Although a
motivation variable may drive the overall decision to outsource, it may be negatively associated with
the degree of outsourcing. This was the specific case of the motivation variable access to expertise in
our study. While the motivation to access expertise through outsourcing has been found in earlier
literature to explain the overall decision to outsource (Lacity et al., 2016), in our study companies that
strongly sought to gain external expertise to the business function ended up outsourcing fewer
processes. We discuss this finding from the perspective of company resources. By gaining access to
expertise through outsourcing, companies seek to complement their resource based on the specific
processes for which they lack internal competence (i.e. cannot perform themselves). Theoretically,
compared to efficiency seeking through outsourcing, this type of resource complementing is clearly
targeted to a smaller number of processes. Thus, based on the argumentation above, it seems
reasonable to find a negative relationship between access to expertise and the degree of outsourcing.
Building on these observations, the second main theoretical implication from our results is a
suggestion of systemic influence on the interaction between outsourcing motivations and the degree
of outsourcing. In other words, analysing motivations on the scale of the whole function provides
greater insights to the interaction between motivation factors and outsourcing, than merely studying
the motivations behind outsourcing each individual process. Our findings suggest that when looking at
outsourcing motivations of a given process or a group of processes within a larger business function,
the relationship between motivations and decision to outsource remains more or less the same across
the spectrum of processes. Therefore, taking a modular view on outsourcing (i.e. analyse outsourcing
motivation for each task or a small group of tasks within a function) could lead to a conclusion that all
outsourcing decisions are equally influenced by a set of common outsourcing motivations. However,
when looking at the bigger picture of outsourcing of a whole business function (in our case,
accounting), we observe the clear relationship between the strength of certain motivations and the
degree of outsourcing. This calls for more systemic analyses of outsourcing, echoing the observations
made by Dibbern et al. (2012) on IS outsourcing.
We argue that, contrary to earlier research (e.g. Dahlberg et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2004), outsourcing
should not be viewed as a single decision with a fixed set of outcomes. Instead, we need to study this
decision beyond the decision point and focus on how the outsourcing decision determinants affect
the outsourcing arrangement resulting from the decision. Our central claim is that the strength of
various motivations defines the degree of outsourcing. However, these motivations may have a
varying effect on the degree of outsourcing, where one set of motivations facilitates a higher degree
of outsourcing, another set has the opposite effect and a third set has no or little effect on the extent
of outsourcing (see Figure 2).
The implication of our approach is that one cannot study or compare various outsourcing decisions
without considering the relationship dynamics between outsourcing motivations of the decision-
making entity and the degree of outsourcing of a given business function. While the majority of the
existing research (as demonstrated by Lacity et al., 2016; Lacity et al., 2011) focuses on studying the
role of motivation in making outsourcing decisions, very few studies analyse the relationship between
the articulated motivations and the configuration (in our case, the degree of outsourcing) of the
outsourcing contract. Our study demonstrates the potential knowledge gains from studying
outsourcing arrangements from the perspective of motivations and possibly other sourcing
determinants, such as transaction attributes.
Implication for practice
Uncovering the nature of the relationship between motivations and the degree of outsourcing yields
insightful implications for practitioners. Outsourcing service providers should understand that their
customer companies have differing motivations to outsource their business processes and that the
degree of outsourcing is one dimension that can be used to analyse these differences. According to
our results, companies seeking access to expertise outsource only a limited set of tasks, whereas
those seeking efficiency gains outsource a larger set of tasks. Outsourcing service providers could take
this into account when designing their market offerings. For example, when entering into negotiations
to renew the contract of an existing customer, the service provider should analyse the past behaviour
of the customer and build arguments for continuing the contract accordingly. Outsourcing service
providers can also develop service packages tailored to different segments of the market and thus
make their sales processes more efficient.
Moreover, information system providers may use the findings of this study to build systems with
features that enable both efficiency and integration of expertise. For customers that outsource a
larger set of tasks, ensuring the efficiency of the outsourced processes is important, whereas easy
integration of expertise is important for customer companies that outsource only a limited number of
tasks.
Companies that are considering outsourcing should carefully reflect upon their motivations and
evaluate which of the processes should be outsourced, in correspondence with their objectives. Many
cloud-based information systems allow a more granular division of tasks between the outsourcing
service provider and the customer company, which enables more alternatives for organizing business
processes.
Limitations and opportunities for further research
We note three main limitations to our findings. First, we limited our empirical setting to the context of
accounting. While accounting offers a somewhat clean and controllable study setting, further research
could explore the relationship between outsourcing motivations and the degree of outsourcing in a
broader context. Researchers could ask, for example: Does the composition of the business function
influence the degree of outsourcing and the associated motivation variables? Furthermore,
empirically, we focused on SMEs, which have more limited access to resources and have fewer layers
of hierarchy than larger firms. Clearly, we must assume the outsourcing behaviour and motivations to
be different in larger firms compared to SMEs. Therefore, here, we restrict ourselves to making
theoretical and practical knowledge claims on SMEs’ outsourcing behaviour. Further research could
look into the differences between large and small firms in terms of their outsourcing motivations and
degree of outsourcing. Second, in this study, we only focus on the degree of outsourcing omitting
specific outsourcing configurations and their interaction with outsourcing motivations. Further studies
could focus on identifying and characterizing common outsourcing configurations within a business
function and analyse the potential interdependencies between different processes and motivations to
outsource. Third, while the motivation items used in this study have strong empirical support from
earlier research, due to the nature of our empirical study (survey), the items had to be simplified,
condensed and measured on seven-point Likert-type scales. In reality, the motivations driving an
outsourcing decision might be more complex calling for studies using data collection methods that
allow for more in-depth probing. Further research could, therefore, take a more qualitative stance
and critically review the results of our study.
Conclusion
We draw on two streams of outsourcing literature—outsourcing motivations and degree of
outsourcing—to probe the relationship between motivations and degree of outsourcing. Relying on a
rich data set with responses from 337 companies, we find that cost reduction, a focus on core
competence and business/process improvements are all associated with a higher degree of
outsourcing, but interestingly, access to expertise is negatively associated with the degree of
outsourcing. This finding suggests that companies that outsource to acquire external expertise are
more selective. These companies outsource only a limited number of processes within a specific
business function. Our main theoretical contribution lies in uncovering the dynamic nature of
outsourcing motivations, meaning that as companies outsource a larger degree of their business
processes, some motivation items become more accentuated and others fade in importance.
Furthermore, our enquiry on process group-level outsourcing revealed that while four of the process
groups (sales, purchases, payroll, payments) portrayed a balanced set of motivations across the seven
motivation items, outsourcing of processes in one process group (reporting) was motivated by access
to expertise. Our empirical findings open avenues for further studies probing the nature of the
relationship between outsourcing motivations and the degree of outsourcing.
Appendix A
Summary of motivations to outsource

Table 6. Motivation variables summary.

Table 6. Motivation variables summary.
View larger version
Appendix B
Accounting in Finland

Table 7. Typical processes within accounting function in Finnish SMEs.

Table 7. Typical processes within accounting function in Finnish SMEs.
View larger version

Table 8. Typical terms of agreement between accounting service provider and a client company in
Finland.
Table 8. Typical terms of agreement between accounting service provider and a client company in
Finland.
View larger version
Appendix C
Survey questions
Which of the following describes your position in the company the best?
? Top management
? Finance and accounting
? HR
? Information management
? Administration
? Sales
? Marketing
? R&D
? Production
? Other. What? ______________
What industry does your company operate in?
[Drop-down list of industries defined by Statistics Finland]
How many employees does your company have?
? 1–5
? 6–10
? 11–15
? 16–20
? 21–25
? 26–30
? 31–35
? 36–40
? 41–45
? 46–50
? 51–75
? 76–100
? 101–150
? 151–250
? 250+
? I am a sole trader
? I do not know
What was your company’s last reported turnover (as reported to the Finnish Patent and Registration
Office and/or the Finnish Tax Authority)?
? €0–€100,000
? €100,001–€200,000
? €200,001–€300,000
? €300,001–€400,000
? €400,001–€500,000
? €500,001–€1,000,000
? €1,000,001–€2,000,000
? €2,000,001–€5,000,000
? €5,000,001–€8,000,000
? €8 000 001–€10,000,000
? €10,000,001–€20,000,000
? €20,000,001–€50,000,000
? €50,000,000+
? I do not know
Where are your customers located?
? Finland
? The EU (other than Finland)
? The rest of Europe
? Asia
? Africa
? N. America
? S. America
? Australia
Where does your company operate (have Branches)?
? Finland
? The EU (other than Finland)
? The rest of Europe
? Asia
? Africa
? N. America
? S. America
? Australia
Do you use cloud-based accounting information systems?
? Yes
? No
? I do not know
If you are outsourcing your accounting partially, please mark the functions that are outsourced/kept
in-house accordingly (in-house/outsourced):
Client register maintenance
Product register maintenance
Sending sales invoices
Handling sales invoices
Sending note of complaint
Sales ledger maintenance
Supplier register maintenance
Receiving purchase invoices
Handling purchase invoices
Handling purchase, travel and other costs
Purchases ledger maintenance
Personnel register maintenance
Basic payroll data maintenance
Payroll calculations
Preparation of balance sheet and income statement
Preparation and sending of VAT
Preparation and sending of annual salary reports
Preparation and sending of annual pension insurance reports
Periodic VAT payments
Salary payments
Payments for purchases, travel and other expenses
Monthly payroll tax payments
Please evaluate how the following factors affected your decision to outsource on a scale of 1–7 (1 =
had no influence, 7 = had a big influence)
– Cost reduction
– Ability to focus on core business
– Expertise of an external accountant
– Opportunity to improve accounting process
– Ability to quickly scale up/down accounting services based on the needs of our company
– Faster delivery times by an external accountant than internal delivery
– Ease of use
– Fear of losing control over outsourced accounting process
– Concern over security of outsourced accounting process
Please indicate the most important factor for outsourcing each of the outsourced processes
[The list of the outsourced processes, based on Question 8]
– Cost reduction
– Ability to focus on core business
– Expertise of an external accountant
– Opportunity to improve accounting process
– Ability to quickly scale up/down accounting services based on the needs of our company
– Faster delivery times by an external accountant than internal delivery
– Ease of use
– Fear of losing control over outsourced accounting process
– Concern over security of outsourced accounting process
Appendix D
Correlations table

Table 9. Correlations table.

Table 9. Correlations table.
View larger version
Appendix E
Negative binomial distribution model
We derive the expression for negative binomial distribution (NBD) model starting from a basic Poisson
model. The Poisson model provides estimates of the probability of the observed count, y=CntOutProc,
as follows

Pr(????|????)=??-????????????????!Pr(yi|xi)=e-µiµiyiyi!
(9)
which is conditional on an expected mean ????µi , expressed in exponential form to avoid negative
values

??(????|????)=????=??(????ß)E(yi|xi)=µi=e(xiß)
(10)
The negative binomial model replaces ????µi with random variable ????i

???=??(????ß+e??)=??(????ß)??e??=?????????i=e(xiß+ei)=e(xiß)eei=µidi
(11)
Thus, the probability density function of the negative binomial function becomes

Pr(????|????)=??-????????(????????)????????!Pr(yi|xi)=e-µidi(µidi)yiyi!
(12)
In NBD model, the probability of the observed count becomes conditional on the error distribution.
We get the unconditional distribution by specifying the gamma distribution for ????di with parameter
????vi and probability density function ??(????)g(di) as follows

??(????)=??????????(????)??????-1????(-????????)for????>0and??(??)=?08??????-1??-??????
g(di)=viviG(vi)divi-1e(-divi)forvi>0andG(v)=?08tv-1e-tdt
(13)
Integrating Equation (12) with Equation (13) gives the probability density of the negative binomial as
follows

Pr(????|????)=??(????+????)????!??(????)(????????+????)????(??????+??)????Pr(yi|xi)=G(yi+vi)yi!
G(vi)(vivi+µi)vi(µvi+µ)yi
(14)
Appendix F
Process-level and process group-level motivations
In Table 10, we report the responses to the individual process-level motivations asked in Question
Number 10 in Appendix C. In the first block, we indicate how many respondents had outsourced the
process and the corresponding percentage of the total number of respondents (n?=?337). In the
second block (and third block), we present how many times each motivation item was cited as the
main motivation to that specific process (and the corresponding percentage). In the fourth and fifth
blocks, we present the process group-level findings in terms of how many times each motivation item
was cited as the main motivation to outsource any of the processes associated to the process group
(sales, purchases, payroll, reporting and payments).
5.) A Sustainable Outsourcing Strategy Regarding Cost, Capacity Flexibility, and Risk in a Textile Supply
Chain / Shaheen Sardar,Young Hae Lee and Muhammad Saad Memon / 2016

The textile industry achieves economic benefits through outsourcing to low cost markets. Today,
reshoring is an emerging trend due to rising cost and unemployment concerns. This problem is
primarily due to an industry-wide focus on economic benefits only. Cost saving is a basic reason for
international outsourcing while domestic outsourcing provides capacity flexibility. Moreover,
outsourcing risk has a major impact on strategic location of the production destinations. Therefore,
the merging of capacity flexibility and outsourcing risk comprises a sustainable outsourcing strategy.
This paper suggests a sustainable outsourcing strategy in which a textile manufacturer outsources to
international markets for cost savings and outsources to the domestic market for capacity flexibility.
The manufacturer reserves some capacity with domestic suppliers, and pays a unit penalty cost if this
capacity flexibility is not utilized. The manufacturer seeks minimum risk in international markets.
Operational cost, penalty cost, and outsourcing risk are considered to be objective functions.
Decisions include the assignment of contracts to suitable facilities, the quantity of each contract, and
allocation of reserved capacity flexibility among domestic suppliers. Multi-objective problem of this
research was solved using three variants of goal programming. Several insights are proposed for
outsourcing decision making in the current global environment.

6.) Outsourcing, Firm Innovation, andIndustry Dynamics in the Production of Semiconductors/Jeff

Thurk/2019

Abstract

I build a dynamic oligopoly model to identify the factors which explain the increase in factoryless
production in the global semiconductor industry. Firms enter the industry each period and
choose whether to invest in developing proprietary fabrication facilities or instead outsource
production to a competitive third-party fabrication industry. The estimated model demonstrates
that factoryless production enables firms to significantly reduce upfront capital expenditure
thereby lowering the costs of entry. The increasing availability of venture capital investment
also played an important role, while the possibility of growth through future R&D investment
and the benefits of lower production costs, due to sourcing either domestically or globally, had
little impact on equilibrium entry. Factoryless and integrated firms co-exist in the long run
equilibrium since the latter firms are able to vertically differentiate their products, enabling
them to maintain significant market share despite significant entry of factoryless firms.

7.) Effects Of Outsourcing Strategy On Procurement Performance Among Universities In

Kenya/Mburu, David Kiarie/2017

Abstract:

The main objective of the study is to determine the effects of outsourcing strategy on procurement
performance among Universities in Kenya. The study found that contracting, comprehensive
outsourcing, licensing agreement and selective outsourcing strategies were main determinants of
procurement performance of universities in Kenya. The target population was all university (66)
entities in Kenya while the sample population was 336 respondents. This study collected both primary
and secondary data. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version
21, due to its ability to predict for identifying groups such as factor analysis, descriptive statistics,
cross tabulation, frequencies, as well as bivariate statistics such as Means, ANOVA and Correlation
tests. The study recommend that universities should put more emphasis on training and information
sharing in order to improve procurement performance, all procurement process should be automated
so as to reduce the error rates and discrepancies in the process and align their procurement
procedures to Public Procurement and Disposal Act since efficient procurement process could be used
as competitive advantage.

8.) (book)Strategic Management / Dess,McNamaram,Eismer / (2017)

9.) (book) Quantitative Methods for Business / David R. Anderson/Dennis J. Sweeney/Thomas A.

Williams/Jeffrey D. Camm/James J. Cochran/Michael J. Fry/Jeffrey W. Ohlmann / (2017)

10.) (book) Strategic Management / Frank T. Rothaermel / (2017)

11.) An improved approach for Sustainable Outsourcing Strategy

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b7b1/d73bea9c9fa6030c8a383ff8ca44ab928548.pdf

12.) Special Issue "How does Outsourcing Affect the Economy and its Sustainability?"
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The pressure of globalization, competition, reduced cycles times and increasing product complexity
have forced many companies to search for new forms of organizations, in particular to meet the
increasing needs for responsiveness and cost reduction. Outsourcing has been the most used solution.
Its aim is to improve productivity, increase revenues and achieve greater flexibility. Outsourcing
allows firms to offer better, faster, and more efficient products/services, thereby gaining value in the
perception of customers. This business strategy has brought radical changes to how companies
operate. If the short term benefits are evident, the long term benefits are less clear and certain. To
help the companies in this long-term challenge, sustainable outsourcing frameworks are necessary
(e.g., Ishizaka and Blakiston [1]).
The aim of this special issue is to publish state-of-the-art research papers focused on the economic
sustainability of outsourcing practices and its consequences. Analytical models, empirical studies, and
case-based studies are all welcomed as long as an article provides new insights and implications to the
practice of management concerning outsourcing practices.
Guest Editor
Dr. Alessio Ishizaka
Reference:
Alessio, I.; Rebecca, B. The 18 C’s model for a successful long-term outsourcing arrangement.
Ind. Mark. Manag. 2012, 41, 1071–1080
Manuscript Submission Information
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continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue
website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned
papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for
announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for
publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly
refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant
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Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing
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Keywords
outsourcing best practices
monitoring outsourcing performances
impact of outsourcing in organizational performances
development of frameworks for sustainable outsourcing
sustainable management of outsourcing activities
development of frameworks for a sustainable outsourcing arranagement
multi-criteria decision methods for outsouricing sustainability assessment
innovative business models for sustainable outsourcing
globalization, intercultural relationships and sustainable outsourcing

13.) Dynamic Outsourcing Development for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in a High-Tech

Backend Semiconductor Equipment Firm
Article Dynamic Outsourcing Development for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in a High-Tech
Backend Semiconductor Equipment Firm
Hyun-Joon Jo 1,2, Timothy Connerton 2 and Hyun-Jung Kim 1,* 1 Seoul Business School, aSSIST, Seoul
03767, Korea; [email protected] 2 Business School Lausanne (BSL), CH-1022 Chavannes (VD),
CH-1022 Chavannes, Switzerland; [email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]
Received: 5 November 2019; Accepted: 19 December 2019; Published: 24 December 2019 _x0007_
_x0007_
Abstract: In a high-tech backend semiconductor business where a market environment changes
sharply and requires competitiveness of high technology, one of the most important criteria is to
establish an optimal strategy for outsourcing development so a ?rm can achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage. Many studies have investigated sustainable and successful strategies for the
selection and management of outsourcing suppliers,whereas,this study focuses mainly on analyzing
the most affecting factor for outsourcing development in the perspective of dynamic capability by
using the Delphi Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. For the analysis of a?ecting factors, 4
dimensions are de?ned: technology, organization, environment, and process. The research result
shows that the sustainability of the productive skill in the technology dimension is adopted as the
mosta?ectingfactorforoutsourcingdevelopmentamongthede?ned4dimensionsofanoutsourcing
supplier’scapability. Withthisresearch,ahigh-tech?rmcanmeasurethelevelofeachdimensionand each
factor in developing outsourcing service providers. Then the ?rm can develop an appropriate
outsourcing provider who contributes to the ?rm’s sustainable competitive advantage. This study also
provides a practical and strategic framework of a high-tech ?rm’s outsourcing development in variable
market situations and changeable conditions of transaction.
Keywords: sustainability; dynamic outsourcing development; competitive advantage; technology;
environment; organization; process; Delphi AHP
1. Introduction Asthemarketenvironmentforhigh-techbusinessisalways?
uctuatingwithuncertainty,diversity, and complexity, it is getting more crucial for ?rms to have
sustainable competitiveness by utilizing external resources as well as developing internal resources
[1]. Outsourcing management helps ?rms
tohaveacompetencybytheutilizationofexternalresourceswhicharenotthecorebusinessesinmany areas
like materials, facility management [2,3]. The typical study for outsourcing is to obtain the advantage
of cost competitiveness by the cost-e?ective resource management which brings economic
advantages for the outsourcing ?rms by the transaction cost analysis [4,5]. Some studies focused on
the perspective of having competitive advantages by improving performance in cost and quality point
of view, however, it was shifted to various aspects like social and environmental factors for
sustainable outsourcing [6–14]. As the market is being transformed with uncertainty and fast changes,
outsourcing development has occurred in an unpredictable market environment, by integrating
transaction cost economics (TCE) and resource-based view (RBV), which helps ?nd a way to move
outsourcing development in
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155; doi:10.3390/su12010155 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 2 of 13
a right direction [7]. In addition to the TCE and RBV, the more agile and active way of outsourcing is
evolved with the concept of dynamic capability view (DCV) which complements the RBV’s static
characteristics for the dynamic process of outsourcing, leading to the successful result of utilizing
external resources [8–10]. DCV is evolved from the operating level capacity to the enhanced level
which focuses on a value creation in a long-term survival [8]. With this context, in a high-tech business
area like a semiconductor backend equipment ?eld, the
sustainabilityoftechnologicaloutsourcingdevelopmentiscrucialtomeetthefastchangeofthemarket
environment. As the speed of the market change is very fast, the approach of the study should focus
more on a dynamic viewpoint with a sustainable long-term base DCV, rather than a comparatively
static concept with TCE or RBV [9,10]. It is a matter of survival whether a high-tech ?rm can be
successful or not on the investigated critical factor with the DCV perspective as the business
environment is rapidly changeable. So, the purposeofthisresearchistode?
neandinvestigatethecriticalfactorandtoproposethemostweighted factor which helps a high-tech ?rm
achieve the competitive advantage in outsourcing development. It is important to ?nd and select
critical factors for outsourcing development under a highly competitive situation [11]. Many other
researchers studied competitive outsourcing [12–14]. For example, a study on competitive
outsourcing focused on how core enterprises make decisions in a supply chain structure regarding
integration and decentralization, and whether core enterprises outsource the no-core business when
the third-party has no cost advantage [12]. It shows a TCE approach perspective. Another study
describes that a maintenance service outsourcing is a strategic measure to improve business
performance, which enables enterprises to obtain highly specialized external services at a reasonable
cost to optimize resource allocation and enhance competitiveness [13]. It can be regarded as a TCE
and RBV approach. However, this research is focused on ?nding the main factors in a dynamic
capability viewpoint
andprovidesthecomparisondatatogiveaprioritybytheframeworkthroughtheDelphiAHPmethod which
can be adopted in a high-tech ?rm case. The research way of AHP and Delphi AHP are widely used for
the research method, and AHP is the hierarchy analysis of several attributes, whereas, this
studyusedDelphiAHPistogettheideaforfactorsandattributesfromanexpertgroup. Thisresearch is based
on the case of a high-?rm that needs the idea of expertise, so the Delphi AHP is selected for the
research method. Generic ?rms which are not for a high-tech business may not need this kind of DCV
approach as they can be su?ciently explained by the TCE or RBV approach, whereas, for the high-tech
business ?eld, the practical activities of ?nding the right factors in a technically changeable market
situation are needed. As this study investigates such a case in a high-tech backend semiconductor
equipment ?rm, in thecaseforotherindustriesorforotherdivisions,theimportanceofthelow-
levelfactorscanbesorted di?erently by considering each ?rm’s circumstances and characteristics.
Eventually, this research can provide the framework for a ?rm to ?nd a most important factor in
outsourcing development. The main problem when a ?rm needs to develop outsourcing service
providers is that a ?rm’s ?rst priority of outsourcing development focuses more on the low cost rather
than on other factors like quality, technology, process, etc. It is critical that a ?rm needs to increase
the business volume and margin to survive in a severely competitive market, however, it can be more
crucial to make it successful with a long-term base in the perspective of sustainability [15,16]. The
hypothesis is formulated so a ?rm need to investigate a critical factor in outsourcing development,
and also veri?ed by proceeding the survey and the examination by the expert group using the Delphi
AHP method. The aim of this research is to provide a framework by ?nding most appropriate
dimensions and factors through a speci?c research method when a ?rm develops outsourcing service
providers for a ?rm’s sustainable competitive advantages. Outsourcing development does not always
bene?t a ?rm, but it can cause issues for the core advantages, like a unique knowhow for the
technology can be transferred to outsourcing service
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 3 of 13
providers. However, in this study, we focus on the bene?ts when a ?rm develops outsourcing in a
dynamic capability perspective [17]. This research after the introduction is organized as follows;
Section 2 provides a theoretical background for TCE, RBV, and DCV for understanding the terminology
used in this article. Section 3 explains how this research is designed according to the de?ned
procedures. Section 4 develops the research framework by surveying and calculating the result by the
Delphi AHP method resulting from the research design. Section 5 provides the discussion and
conclusion of the study with the suggestion of the future study with this frame.
2. Theoretical Background for TCE, RBV, and DCV
Inordertounderstandthefactorsfortheoutsourcingmanagementinthisresearch,itissigni?cant to
recognize the concepts of TCE (transaction cost economics), RBV (resource-based view) and DCV
(dynamic capability view) [1]. In traditional studies, scholars described outsourcing as the decision to
manufacture or buy intermediated goods from external services or the entrusting process to an
external ?rm for internal manufacturing for non-core business [18]. When a ?rm needs to have
competitiveness in a dynamic market situation, the ?rm needs to consider one of the factors of DCV,
innovation [19]. The concept of outsourcing has been proposed in various perspectives for building a
successful outsourcing relationship and for motivating outsourcing suppliers, which are mainly about
the economic perspective, TCE, and capability perspective, RBV [16]. As the winning strategy for
economic and capability can be a part of the factors for outsourcing
developmentinacomplexanduncertainoutsourcingenvironment,itdoesnotcommitthecompetitive
advantageinalong-termbasesuccess. Outsourcingdevelopmentisastrategicdecisionwherebusiness
processesaredevelopedbyoutsourcingsupplierswithbettercapabilitiesaswellasthecostperspective for
the competitive advantages which are sustainable and e?ective [20–22]. So, in outsourcing
development, there should be an understanding of which way the ?rms will consider, like TCE as a
cost perspective, RBV as a capability perspective, and DCV as a sustainability perspective [23,24].
Firstly, TCE, theory of traction cost economics, was made to describe the make or buy choice. The
purpose of outsourcing in the beginning stage of research is to take advantage of cost-e?ective
resources which can bring bene?ts to outsourcing suppliers like ?exibility and innovation [5,25]. It is
aninterdisciplinaryundertakingthatjoinseconomicswithaspectsoforganizationtheoryandoverlaps
extensively with contract law [26]. TCE provides a clear guideline where the ?rm will proceed with an
in-house transaction, and help to decide to change to the external market [16]. It is the concept of
cost perspective, so the transaction is performed by the minimum costs where the priorities are on
the e?ectiveness of cost and quality for the decision of outsourcing development [15,27,28].
Secondly, RBV is another concept for outsourcing, and it focuses on the special resources which are
perceived as a strength or weakness of a particular ?rm. This perspective describes that ?rms can
expand their boundaries by connecting to outsourcing partners, which enables them to access
technologies, machinery, procedure, and so on [16,29]. Whereas, the TCE is to control the resources
to share any technologies which could be the core of outsourcing companies. TCE and RBV can be
combined when outsourcing activities are done in their value chain [15,30]. High-tech ?rms tend to
integrate or acquire the needed resources by the strategic contract with other ?rms like the type of
outsourcing [5,31]. From this viewpoint, the capability-based RBV can be explained as a strategy of
outsourcing and organization behaviors [32,33]. By outsourcing activities, ?rms can improve their
values by making better relationships with outsourcing suppliers, developing new markets, and
acquiring the competitive market position, as well as achieving cost e?ectiveness [8,34–36]. In the
outsourcing development strategies, like cost-lead or capability-lead, it provides the key discussion
thatresourceshouldbeoutsourcedfromoutsourcingprovidersconsideringthe?rms’situation[37–39].
Finally, DCV is evolved from RBV, and complements the static perspectives of RBV, and focuses on the
dynamic process of connecting external resources by the supporting of internal resources. It explains
the way of in?uence on the outsourcing development with ?rms’ resources and capabilities
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 4 of 13
actively for the long-term success [8]. RBV focuses on the resources itself, whereas DCV emphasizes
theprocessoftheresourcecon?guratione?cientlyinanintegrationperspective[40,41]. Inspiteofthe
importance of TCE and RBV in the outsourcing business ?eld, lots of research describes that there
should be further studies to improve the static characteristics in the active point of view in a variable
market demand [42]. It is needed for a ?rm to reconstitute the core competencies to increase the
value according to the easily changeable market environment [2]. So many researchers have studied
the dynamic capabilities, DCV, to cope with the volatile situation for a sustainable competitive
advantage for the ?rms. RBV focuses on the capabilities itself; however, DCV considers the process of
selecting the resource con?gurations by the integration and coordination [40,43]. Dynamic
capabilities change the level from operation capacities to value creation which is critical for long-term
organization. DCV setupintheoutsourcingdevelopmentprocessisanimportantfactorwhicha?
ectsthesuccessfulresult by explaining the outsourcing performance [43].
ThefactorsofthisstudymainlycomefromtheideaconsideringtheperspectiveofDCVbecausethis high-tech
market needs the sustainable development of outsourcing to manage long-term competitive
advantagesinahighlychangeableenvironment[44]. So, itwillfocusmoreonthecharacteristicsofthe
dynamic capabilities view in a way of integration and coordination rather than RBV or TCE which deals
with the static resource itself and with the lowering cost [1,5,7]. This study will prove the most
prioritized factor for the dynamic outsourcing development by the pairwise comparison of the factors
by the Delphi AHP method.
3. Research Design
3.1. Research Design Description Thisresearchisdesignedandcon?guredwithsevensteps(Figure1).
Itisnecessarytoinvestigate
thebackgroundofthisresearchbecauseitexplainswhythisstudyisneededandhowitcontributesfor a ?rm
to ?nd success factors in outsourcing development. The following preliminary study helps to
understand the meaning of words being used in this study. The literature review is a step to know the
de?ned and sorted dimensions and factors to recognize the meanings by each analytic perspective.
Theresearchdesignistocon?gurethestepsofthestudythatareessentialtodesigntheresearch. When the
result comes out, the analysis is performed to ?nd the meaning and the implication of the result, and
it can suggest further studies that could not be covered in this paper.
1. Research background As the high-tech business ?eld is changing rapidly, it is more needed to
investigate the success factor of the dynamic capabilities when a high-tech ?rm develops outsourcing.
2. Preliminary Study It is to understand the terminology approaching outsourcing factors, which are
TCE, RBV, and DCV. 3. Literature review It describes the de?nitions and concepts of dimensions and
factors in each level, to recognize of the meaning and the relations of TCE, RBV, and mainly DCV for
dynamic perspectives. 4. Research design It shows the research modeling and the analysis for each
factor, and describes how the factors are de?ned in the dimensions through the literature review. 5.
Result analysis After the survey with the 18 experts, the outcome is analyzed to prioritize the
dimensions and factors which are most important to develop the outsourcing supplier.
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 5 of 13
6. Discussion and Conclusion It shows how the sustainability factor is prioritized in the variable market
situation, and how it could be adopted in the real case. It also proposes the framework to be utilized
in another case. 7. Further Study It describes the validity of this research, and shows the implication
and proposition of further study after this research. Sustainability 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 5 of
13 6. Discussion and Conclusion It shows how the sustainability factor is prioritized in the variable
market situation, and how it could be adopted in the real case. It also proposes the framework to be
utilized in another case. 7. Further Study It describes the validity of this research, and shows the
implication and proposition of further study after this research.

Figure 1. Research design.

3.2. Meaning of Factors for Outsourcing Development In an outsourcing development perspective,
this study investigated the concept of 4 dimensions which are technology, organization, environment,
and process. They are defined as major dimensions in outsourcing development as they are
substantial elements which are based on the concepts built on technology, organization, environment
(TOE) framework [45,46]. These three factors are adopted as the affected dimensions to develop
outsourcing effectively and innovatively. This framework is extended to the dimension of process
which is another important element for outsourcing for a pairwise comparison with other dimensions.
It includes important factors in the process dimension [21,47]. The sub factors are defined and
investigated in empirical perspectives when the survey is proceeded with the expert group in an
outsourcing business field.
3.2.1. Technology It is one of the key dimensions when a firm considers outsourcing. A cost is not the
only reason for outsourcing even if an item can be manufactured in-house with a low price.
Sometimes a firm can outsource a critical item even though it is less expensive in-house production
from a strategic point of view [48,49]. In this case, the technical skill and the way of working of the
service providers are important criteria for outsourcing a firm’s decision for the development of
outsourcing service providers [50,51]. The technology in outsourcing development consists of
innovation, improvement, and creation in technical skill, and of flexibility, sustainability, and
attainability in productive skill (Table 1).
Research Background
Preliminary Study
Literature Review
TCE RBV
Research Design
Factor Concept Modeling Factor Define
Result Analysis
Discussion and Conclusion
Further Study
Design Survey
DCV
Figure 1. Research design. 3.2. Meaning of Factors for Outsourcing Development In an outsourcing
development perspective, this study investigated the concept of 4 dimensions which are technology,
organization, environment, and process. They are de?ned as major dimensions in outsourcing
development as they are substantial elements which are based on the concepts built on technology,
organization, environment (TOE) framework [45,46]. These three factors are adopted as the a?ected
dimensions to develop outsourcing e?ectively and innovatively. This framework is extended to the
dimension of process which is another important element for outsourcing for a pairwise comparison
with other dimensions. It includes important factors in the process dimension [21,47]. The sub factors
are de?ned and investigated in empirical perspectives when the survey is proceeded with the expert
group in an outsourcing business ?eld.
3.2.1. Technology It is one of the key dimensions when a firm considers outsourcing. A cost is not the
only reason foroutsourcingevenifanitemcanbemanufacturedin-housewithalowprice.
Sometimesafirmcan outsourceacriticalitemeventhoughitislessexpensivein-
houseproductionfromastrategicpointof view[48,49].
Inthiscase,thetechnicalskillandthewayofworkingoftheserviceprovidersareimportant
criteriaforoutsourcingafirm’sdecisionforthedevelopmentofoutsourcingserviceproviders[50,51]. The
technologyinoutsourcingdevelopmentconsistsofinnovation,improvement,andcreationintechnical
skill,andofflexibility,sustainability,andattainabilityinproductiveskill(Table1).
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 6 of 13
Table 1. Technology dimension. Dimension Factors Sub Factors Description Related Literatures
Technology
Technical Skill
Innovation Innovative for client’s demand
[48,49]
Improvement Improving for client’s demand Creation Creative for client’s demand
Productive Skill
Flexibility Flexible support Sustainability Sustainable support Attainability Attainable support
3.2.2. Organization In developing outsourcing, the outsourcing ?rms should be aware of the
characteristics of the outsourcing service providers. It can be managed by a team or an individual
base, however, the organizational control of outsourcing is needed to achieve the e?ective
outsourcing result [52]. The organization in outsourcing development consists of leadership, self-
motivation, and system in team-based characteristics, and of experience, diligence, and obedience in
individual-based characteristics (Table 2).
Table 2. Organization dimension. Dimension Factors Sub Factors Description Related Literatures
Organization
Team
Leadership Team with strong leader
[7,52]
Self-motive Self-motivated team system Systematic team
Individual
Experience Support with experience Diligence Diligent support way obedience Accept all the
requirements
3.2.3. Environment As the high-tech market is always a volatile and uncertain situation, insight or
knowledge of the environment is important in outsourcing partners. To achieve an overall satisfaction
of outsourcing, operational and ?nancial performance should be advanced by the integration of
factors in the market variables of sales and relationship, like customers and competitors [53,54]. The
environment in outsourcing development is con?gured as supportive, cooperative, and responsible in
a behavior for customers, and as aggressive and conservative in a behavior for competitors [55,56]
(Table 3).
Table 3. Environment dimension. Dimension Factors Sub Factors Description Related Literatures
Environment
Customers
Supportive Supportive for any request
[6,53,54]
Cooperative Cooperative for the demand Responsible Support with responsibility Competitors
Aggressive Aggressive to competitor Conservative Conservative to competitor
3.2.4. Process It helps the outsourcing company better identify the e?ciency in their supply chain
internally and externally when understanding quality and performance issues. So, it needs more
investigation to extend the scope of the quality process in outsourcing to consider supply chain
operations [57,58]. The
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 7 of 13
process in the outsourcing development is de?ned as accurate, e?cient in the level of quality for client
demands, and as agile and elaborate in the level of speed for client demands [59,60] (Table 4).
Table 4. Process dimension. Dimension Factors Sub Factors Description Related Literatures
Process
Quality Accurate Focus on accuracy of quality [57,58,61]E ?cient Focus on e?ciency of quality Speed
Agile Support with very promptly Elaborate Support with big e?ort
With the study for the de?nition of several factors for outsourcing development, the research
designmodeliscon?guredtoproceedtheDelphiAHPmethod(Figure2). Thedimensionsandfactors are de?
ned considering DCV, and the surveys are performed to gather ideas from the expert group.
Sustainability 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 13
Table 4. Process dimension. Dimension Factors Sub Factors Description Related Literatures
Process
Quality
Accurate Focus on accuracy of quality
[57,58,61]
Efficient Focus on efficiency of quality
Speed
Agile Support with very promptly Elaborate Support with big effort
With the study for the definition of several factors for outsourcing development, the research design
model is configured to proceed the Delphi AHP method (Figure 2). The dimensions and factors are
defined considering DCV, and the surveys are performed to gather ideas from the expert group.

Figure 2. Research modeling.

3.3. Research Process It is a quantitative approach to examine each dimension and factor by the
pairwise comparison. The Delphi AHP method is a systematic and interactive research way which
relies on the selection of the correct answer by the expert group who has knowledge on the given
topics [62]. Data on the prioritized factors of dynamic outsourcing development were collected from
the perspectives of outsourcing service providers to use the Delphi AHP method. Each factor is
defined in DCV perspectives by the precedent literature review and compared to prioritize the most
important factors in high-tech firms by performing the survey in the expert group that has worked in a
high-tech backend semiconductor equipment firm more than 10 years (Table 5).
Figure 2. Research modeling.
3.3. Research Process It is a quantitative approach to examine each dimension and factor by the
pairwise comparison. The Delphi AHP method is a systematic and interactive research way which
relies on the selection of the correct answer by the expert group who has knowledge on the given
topics [62].
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 8 of 13
Data on the prioritized factors of dynamic outsourcing development were collected from the
perspectives of outsourcing service providers to use the Delphi AHP method. Each factor is de?ned in
DCV perspectives by the precedent literature review and compared to prioritize the most important
factors in high-tech ?rms by performing the survey in the expert group that has worked in a high-tech
backend semiconductor equipment ?rm more than 10 years (Table 5).
Table 5. Demographics of expert for the survey.
Category Experience Invited Experts Answered Experts
Client
More than 20 years+ 5 5 15–20 years+ 3 3 10–15 years+ 1 1
Service Providers
More than 20 years+ 5 4 15–20 years+ 3 3 10–15 years+ 2 1
Inthesurvey,atthe?rstlevel,4dimensionsarepairwisecompared,andthenfactorsarecompared in each
dimension. Each sub factor is also compared in each factor area. The input value is calculated
according to the geometrical average after the survey, so the weight for each dimension and factor
level is valued and prioritized. There are two categories of target experts invited to join in the Delphi
AHP survey which are clients and service providers. Some of the experts did not answer and there
could be a limitation of objectiveness, however, the result was meaningful as it has a consistency to ?
nd the most reasonable factor of outsourcing development in high-tech ?rms by using the Delphi AHP
method.
4. Results
4.1. Result of Dimensions and Factors The result shows that technology is the most weighted one as
0.5006 among the de?ned four dimensions—technology, organization, environment, and process. The
reason is that the respondents who joined this survey are working in high-tech ?rms where
technology is the critical factor to develop outsourcing. The next critical dimension is the process as
0.2846 as the process should be kept controlled to support clients’ high demand of quality and speed.
The dimensions for the environment and organization are weighted comparatively low as 0.1187 and
0.0961, however, they should not be neglected dimensions but should be considered (Table 6).
Table 6. Delphi AHP result for dimensions and factors. Dimension Dimension Weight Factors Factor
Local Weight Factor Global Weight
Factor Global Rank Technology 0.5006 Technical Skill 0.2262 0.1132 3 ProductiveSkill 0.7738 0.3874 1
Organization 0.0961 Team 0.6967 0.067 6 Individual 0.3024 0.0291 8
Environment 0.1187
Customers 0.6619 0.0786 5 Competitors 0.3381 0.0401 7
Process 0.2846
Quality 0.6429 0.183 2 Speed 0.3517 0.1001 4
In the technology dimension, both technical and productive skill of outsourcing service providers are
compared, and the productive skill scored 0.7738 as a factor local weight which means the expert
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 9 of 13
groupsbelieveitismorecriticalforoutsourcingserviceproviderstosupportclientswiththeproductive skill
rather than technical skill in the technology dimension. In the organization dimensions, team and
individual are compared by selecting which
characteristicsofoutsourcingserviceprovidersarebetterwhenworkingwithclients. Theresultshows that
team-based working is better with the factor weight 0.6967 than the individual-based working with
the factor weight 0.3024. In the next environment dimensions, customers and competitors are
compared which is more important in the environment of the outsourcing service providers. The
result shows that the factor of the customer environment is more important with the factor weight
0.6691 than the competitor environment with the factor weight 0.3381. In the next process
dimensions, quality and speed are compared which is critical to support clients’ demand in process
perspectives. The result shows that the factor of the quality of working is more crucial with the factor
weight 0.6429 than the speed of working with the factor weight 0.3517. The reason is that a high-tech
?rms’ requirement on the quality has more importance than the speed of working. The local weight
shows a prioritized factor in each dimension, and the global weight is calculated by multiplying with
the dimension weight which factor is most important among all the eight factors in each of the four
dimensions that the sum of all of them is 1.000. Eventually the factor global weight is calculated by
multiplying dimension weight and the factor local weight, which can help to give rankings for each 8
factors. So, the factor of the productive skill in the technology dimension is the most important in the
factor level.
4.2. Result of Sub-Factors
Thefactorsandthesubfactorsareinvestigated,theweightandvaluesforlocalweightandglobal weight are
calculated. It shows that the most weighted sub-factor is the sustainability in productive skill in the
technology dimension (Table 7).
Table 7. Delphi AHP result for factors and sub-factors. Dimension Weight Factors Factor Local Weight
Sub-Factors Sub-Factor Local Weight Sub-Factor Global Weight
Sub-Factor Global Rank
Technology 0.5006
Technical Skill
0.2262
Innovation 0.1244 0.0141 18 Improvement 0.6285 0.0712 4 Creation 0.2471 0.0280 11
Productive Skill
0.7738
Flexibility 0.2360 0.0914 3 Sustainability 0.6706 0.2598 1 Attainability 0.0934 0.0362 9
Organization 0.0961
Team 0.6967
Leadership 0.2628 0.0176 16 Self-motive 0.1208 0.0081 19 system 0.6164 0.0413 7
Individual 0.3024
Experience 0.6715 0.0195 14 Diligence 0.2362 0.0069 20 obedience 0.1463 0.0043 21
Environment 0.1187
Customers 0.6619
Supportive 0.5061 0.0398 8 Cooperative 0.1865 0.0147 17 responsible 0.3074 0.0242 12 Competitors
0.3381 Aggressive 0.5521 0.0222 13 Conservative 0.4479 0.0180 15
Process 0.2846
Quality 0.6429 Accurate 0.6688 0.1224 2 E?cient 0.3133 0.0573 6 Speed 0.3517 Agile 0.6833 0.0684 5
Elaborate 0.3167 0.0317 10
It describes that the other sub factor, the accurate is rank #2, which means the accurate quality is
alsoaveryimportantsubfactorintheprocessdimensioninoutsourcingdevelopmentofhigh-tech?rms.
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 10 of 13
Inaddition,?exibilityranked#3inthissurvey,thenitmeansthattheoutsourcingsuppliershouldhave the ?
exibility in a volatile market environment to meet the vendor’s various and unexpected demand. This
research implies that sustainability is the most crucial sub factor in the productive skill of the
technology dimension for dynamic outsourcing development (Table 7). The global ranking for
sustainability is #1 with the weight, 0.2598 from the total global weight 1.0000 among all 21 sub
factors. It means that among all the de?ned and investigated sub-factors and factors in the
dimensions, the sustainability of the productive skill is the most important factor when the high-
tech ?rm considers to develop the outsourcing service providers.
5. Discussion and Conclusions Thisresearchimpliesthatthesustainabilityisthemostcrucialsub-
factorinthefactorofproductive skill of the technology dimension for dynamic outsourcing development
A high-tech semiconductor backend equipment manufacturer in a real world need to consider the
factor of sustainability in productive skill when developing outsourcing. We could know that there are
lots of subjective and objective items to have the sustainability of competitive advantages for the
high-tech ?rm to consider when investigating a proper outsourcing provider because demands from
the volatile and high-tech market do not stay just in a static situation but change rapidly and
unexpectedly. Thisresearchprovidesaframeworkforhigh-tech?
rmstoconsiderwhendevelopinganappropriate outsourcing supplier with the process of de?ning and
investigating the dimensions and factors from dynamic capabilities perspective in that variable market
circumstances. As an example, by utilizing this framework using Delphi AHP, it can be analyzed that
one of high-tech ?rms of semiconductor backend equipment could develop a suitable outsourcing
supplier in the dynamic perspective. The ?rm could set the procedure of outsourcing development for
factor investigation to include the expert-survey analysis, and then have the result of the investigation
by prioritizing the factors using this research method. To sustain the competitiveness, it is considered
the long-term business improvement in dynamic perspective, so the result shows that the experience
got the highest point, and could be considered as a most important factor in that case. This
framework can be applicable to other business ?elds by expanding the dimensions and factors as the
demand for the outsourcing development in a high-tech market is various and an increasing situation.
In addition to that, further studies can be followed and improved by referring this framework and by
considering each ?rm’s di?erent perspectives of the business ?eld, size of ?rm, and outsourcing type.
This research result can be utilized as a framework in outsourcing development considering the di?
erent situations and environments of the ?rms. It can be prioritized which factor should be considered
?rstly, and which factor is less important with an e?cient way. The values are investigated and
calculated by the Delphi AHP method. This study also shows that it is important to control and
manage the accurate quality in the process dimension as an outsourcing service-provider of high-
tech ?rms. On the other hand, there is a limitation in this research. As this study is investigated by
having ideasfromtheexpertswhoworkinhigh-tech?
rmslikethesemiconductorbackendequipmentmarket, it can be limited to validate to other industries,
however, it is meaningful that this framework can support how factors and sub factors can be
pairwise compared to developing the outsourcing service providers by prioritizing each factor. Future
research can be performed in other business areas with the expert group by using the improved
framework to ?nd crucial dimensions and factors, while this study focuses on factors and dimensions
for the outsourcing development in a high-tech business ?eld. However, in addition to a high-tech
business ?eld, it will be interesting to investigate factors by adopting and improving this framework in
several other business cases for a ?rm to acquire sustainability and a competitive advantage.
Sustainability 2020, 12, 155 11 of 13
Additionally, there is an issue of make-or-buy that the original equipment manufacturers (OEM)
should select strategically the way of the manufacturing process whether they do it by themselves or
outsource it to the third-party manufacturer [17,60]. In a case of high-tech business, there is a
considerationthatacorebusinessshouldbeownedorcouldbeoutsourced. FromtheRBVperspective,
thecoste?ectivenessandthebene?tcanbeimprovedbytheactivitiesoftheoutsourcingdevelopment,
however, the technological knowledge can hardly be transferred to the third-party manufacturer. In
furtherresearches,theresearchframeworkofthisstudycanbeimprovedbyconsideringtheRBV-based
decision in a perspective of make-or-buy.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, H.-J.J. and H.-J.K.; methodology, H.-J.J. and H.-J.K.; software,
H.-J.K.; validation, H.-J.J., H.-J.K. and T.C.; formal analysis, H.-J.J.; investigation, H.-J.K.; resources, H.-
J.J.; data curation, H.-J.K.; writing—original draft preparation, H.-J.J.; writing—review and editing, H.-
J.K. and T.C.; visualization, H.-J.J.; supervision, H.-J.K. and T.C. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript. Funding: This research received no external funding. Con?icts of
Interest: The authors declare no con?ict of interests.

14.) Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action:
Literature review
Abstract
Sustainable development (SD) has become a popular catchphrase in contemporary development
discourse. However, in spite of its pervasiveness and the massive popularity it has garnered over the
years, the concept still seems unclear as many people continue to ask questions about its meaning
and history, as well as what it entails and implies for development theory and practice. The purpose
of this paper is to contribute to the discourse on SD by further explaining the paradigm and its
implications for human thinking and actions in the quest for sustainable development. This is done
through extensive literature review, combining aspects of the “Preferred Reporting Items for
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the Recursive Content Abstraction
(RCA) analytical approach. The paper finds and argues that the entire issue of sustainable
development centres around inter- and intragenerational equity anchored essentially on three-
dimensional distinct but interconnected pillars, namely the environment, economy, and society.
Decision-makers need to be constantly mindful of the relationships, complementarities, and trade-
offs among these pillars and ensure responsible human behaviour and actions at the international,
national, community and individual levels in order to uphold and promote the tenets of this paradigm
in the interest of human development. More needs to be done by the key players—particularly the
United Nations (UN), governments, private sector, and civil society organisations—in terms of
policies, education and regulation on social, economic and environmental resource management to
ensure that everyone is sustainable development aware, conscious, cultured and compliant.
Keywords/phrases: sustainable development, sustainable development goals: economic
sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability

View correction statement:

Correction

1. Introduction
Sustainable Development (SD) has become a ubiquitous development paradigm—the catchphrase for
international aid agencies, the jargon of development planners, the theme of conferences and
academic papers, as well as the slogan of development and environmental activists (Ukaga, Maser, &
Reichenbach, 2011). The concept seems to have attracted the broad-based attention that other
development concept lack(ed), and appears poised to remain the pervasive development paradigm
for a long time (Scopelliti et al., 2018; Shepherd et al., 2016). However, notwithstanding its
pervasiveness and popularity, murmurs of disenchantment about the concept are rife as people
continue to ask questions about its meaning or definition and what it entails as well as implies for
development theory and practice, without clear answers forthcoming (Montaldo, 2013; Shahzalal &
Hassan, 2019; Tolba, 1984). SD therefore stands the risk of becoming a cliché like appropriate
technology—a fashionable and rhetoric phrase—to which everyone pays homage but nobody seems
to define with precision and exactitude (Mensah & Enu-Kwesi, 2018; Tolba, 1984).
In the attempt to move beyond the sustainability rhetoric and pursue a more meaningful agenda for
sustainable development, a clear definition of this concept and explanation of its key dimensions are
needed (Gray, 2010; Mensah & Enu-Kwesi, 2018). This need, according to Gray (2010), as cited in
Giovannoni and Fabietti (2014), has been advocated by both academics and practitioners in order to
promote sustainable development. While it cannot be disputed that literature on SD abounds, issues
regarding the concept’s definition, history, pillars, principles and the implications of these for human
development, remain unclear to many people. Thus, the profusion of literature notwithstanding,
further clarification of the unclear issues about SD is imperative since decision-makers need not only
better data and information on the linkages among the principles and pillars of SD, but also enhanced
understanding of such linkages and their implication for action in the interest of human development
(Abubakar, 2017; Hylton, 2019). Succinctly put, a concise and coherent discourse on SD is needed to
further illuminate the pathway and trajectory to sustainable development in order to encourage
citizenship rather than spectatorship. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to the
intelligibility and articulacy of the discourse on SD by providing more concise information on its
meaning, evolution, associated key concepts, dimension, the relationships among the dimensions, the
principles, and their implications for global, national and individual actions in the quest for SD. This is
significant as it would provide researchers, policymakers and academics, as well as development
practitioners and students more information about the paradigm for policy-making, decision-making
and further research.
2. Materials and method
The review was guided by aspects of the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
Meta-Analyses” (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009; Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003).
Secondary data were collected through review of relevant materials including articles, theses,
conference presentations and other documents available on the internet. The documents were
identified through a combination of searches, using keywords and terms associated with SD. These
included sustainability, development, sustainable development, economic sustainability, social
sustainability, environmental sustainability and sustainable development goals. No date restrictions
were imposed on the search as priority was given to the relevance of the materials in terms of their
substantial contribution to the ongoing discourse on SD, irrespective of the age of the material.
Attempts, however, were made to capture as much recent literature as possible in order to reflect the
currency and increasing relevance of the topic.
Literature that was not related to sustainability and development was excluded. However, in order to
avoid the risk of missing potentially relevant literature, reference lists of selected articles were
scanned for related materials to the topic under study. Information, including title and abstract, was
reviewed for articles and other publications identified in the search. Selected materials meeting pre-
defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and were coherent with the topic of interest were included in
the review. The general inclusion criteria were relevance, authority and currency (Browning &
Rigolon, 2019; Wolf et al., 2014). Relevance had to do with how the material had contributed to the
SD discourse, while authority refers to whether it had been published by a reputable source or the
material had been peer-reviewed or professionally edited, Currency, on the other hand, was defined
in terms of whether the material was still influential regarding the debate on SD (Browning & Rigolon,
2019) as evidenced, for example, by citations. The initial search criteria identified a total of 1154
references. However, applying the screening and eligibility processes stated above, 61 articles were
identified for full-text retrieval, out of which 26 were identified as meeting the final inclusion criteria
as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Material selection algorithm.

The full texts were read thoroughly in order to extract the relevant information. Pieces of information
gathered were analysed, combining the qualitative content analysis (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008; Hsieh &
Shannon, 2005; Mayring, 2000) and recursive abstraction (Leshan, 2012) techniques. That is, the
contents were summarized under themes without coding but with notes; In this regard, the relevant
information were summarised repeatedly, guided by the keywords and phrases already mentioned.
The series of summarizing, which were manually done, were aimed at bringing out the basic results
with regard to the viewpoints of each input data and to remove discrepancies and irrelevant data. The
reasons for discarding particular aspects of each summary result were noted while each summary was
being prepared in order not to forget the reasons for their exclusion. Pieces of information gathered
through the summaries were synthesised, interlinked and paraphrased to make them more
condensed, concise, coherent and manageable, being careful not to change the meaning of the data
when combining the themes. The end result was a more concise and refined summary of the relevant
literature regarding the key issues as presented below.
3. The key issues
The paper focuses on key issues relating to the concepts of development, sustainability and
sustainable development. The issues include the history of SD as well as the pillars and principles of
this concept. The paper also presents the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the associated
debate regarding the trade-offs, complementarities, costs and benefits, as well as what can be done
to achieve the “much-talked-about” SD.
3.1. The concept of development
Development, as a concept, has been associated with diverse meanings, interpretations and theories
from various scholars. Development is defined as ‘an evolutionary process in which the human
capacity increases in terms of initiating new structures, coping with problems, adapting to continuous
change, and striving purposefully and creatively to attain new goals (Peet, 1999 cited in Du Pisani,
2006). According to Reyes (2001) development is understood as a social condition within a nation, in
which the needs of its population are satisfied by the rational and sustainable use of natural resources
and systems. Todaro and Smith (2006) also define development as a multi-dimensional process that
involves major changes in social structures, attitudes, and institutions, as well as economic growth,
reduction of inequality, and eradication of absolute poverty. Several theories have been put forward
to explain the concept of development. They include the Modernisation, Dependency, World Systems
and Globalisation Theories.
The Modernization Theory of development distinguishes between two main categories of society in
the world, namely the traditional and modern societies. The theory, according to Tipps (1976), argues
that the traditional societies are entangled by norms, beliefs and values, which are hampering their
development. Therefore, in order to progress, the traditional societies must emulate the culture of
modern societies, which is characterised by accumulation of capital and industrialization which are
compatible with development. In essence, this theory seeks to improve the standard of living of
traditional societies through economic growth by introducing modern technology (Huntington, 1976).
This theory is criticised for not taking into account Sen's (1999) view of development regarding
freedoms and self-esteem. The Dependency Theory, based on Marxist ideology, debunks the tenets of
the Modernization Theory and asserts that industrialization in the developed countries rather subjects
poor countries to underdevelopment as a result of the economic surplus of the poor countries being
exploited by developed countries (Bodenheimer, 1970; Webster, 1984). The theory, however, fails to
clarify the dependency of the less developed countries on the metropolis in terms of how the
developed countries secure access to the economic surplus of the poor countries.
The World Systems Theory posits that international trade specialization and transfer of resources
from the periphery (less developed countries) to the core (developed countries) stifle development in
the periphery by making them rely on core countries (Petras, 1981). The World Systems Theory
perceives the world economy as an international hierarchy of unequal relations (Reyes, 2001) and
that the unequal relations in the exchange between the Third World and First World countries is the
source of First World surplus. This contrasts with the classical Marxist Theory, which posits that the
surplus results from the capital-labour relation that exists in “production” itself. (Bodenheimer, 1970;
Reyes, 2001) The World System Theory has been criticised for overemphasising the world market
while neglecting forces and relations of production. (Petras, 1981)
Similar to the World System Theory, the Globalization Theory originates from the global mechanisms
of deeper integration of economic transactions among the countries (Portes, 1992). However, apart
from the economic ties, other key elements for development interpretation as far as globalisation is
concerned are the cultural links among nations (Kaplan, 1993; Moore, 1993), In this cultural
orientation, one of the cardinal factors is the increasing flexibility of technology to connect people
around the world (Reyes, 2001). Therefore, open and easy communication among nations has created
grounds for cultural homogenisation, thereby creating a single global society (Waks, 2006). Political
events no longer take local character but global character. Thus, according to Parjanadze (2009),
globalisation is underpinned by political, economic, technological and socio-cultural factors and
orientations. Although these developments theories have their weaknesses, they have paved the way
for the current global development concepts and paradigm, namely “sustainability” and “sustainable
development” (SD).
3.2. Sustainability
Literally, sustainability means a capacity to maintain some entity, outcome or process over time
(Basiago, 1999). However, in development literature, most academics, researchers and practitioners
(Gray & Milne, 2013: Tjarve, & Zemite, 2016; Mensah & Enu-Kwesi, 2018; Thomas, 2015) apply the
concept to connote improving and sustaining a healthy economic, ecological and social system for
human development. Stoddart (2011) defines sustainability as the efficient and equitable distribution
of resources intra-generationally and inter-generationally with the operation of socio-economic
activities within the confines of a finite ecosystem. Ben-Eli (2015), on the other hand, sees
sustainability as a dynamic equilibrium in the process of interaction between the population and the
carrying capacity of its environment such that the population develops to express its full potential
without producing irreversible adverse effects on the carrying capacity of the environment upon
which it depends. From this standpoint (Thomas, 2015) continues that sustainability brings into focus
human activities and their ability to satisfy human needs and wants without depleting or exhausting
the productive resources at their disposal. This, therefore, provokes thoughts on the manner in which
people should lead their economic and social lives drawing on the available ecological resources for
human development.
Hák, Janoušková, and Moldan (2016) have argued that transforming global society, environment and
economy to a sustainable one is one of the most uphill tasks confronting man today since it is to be
done within the context of the planet’s carrying capacity. The World Bank (2017) continues that this
calls for innovative approaches to managing realities. In furtherance of this argument, DESA-UN
(2018) posits that the ultimate objective of the concept of sustainability, in essence, is to ensure
appropriate alignment and equilibrium among society, economy and the environment in terms of the
regenerative capacity of the planet’s life-supporting ecosystems. In the view of Gossling-Goidsmiths
(2018), it is this dynamic alignment and equilibrium that must be the focus of a meaningful definition
of sustainability.
However, as argued by Mensah and Enu-Kwesi (2018), the definition must also emphasise the notion
of cross-generational equity, which is clearly an important idea but poses difficulties, since future
generations’ needs are neither easy to define nor determine. Based on the foregoing, contemporary
theories of sustainability seek to prioritize and integrate social, environmental and economic models
in addressing human challenges in a manner that will continually be beneficial to human (Hussain,
Chaudhry, & Batool, 2014; UNSD, 2018b). In this regard, economic models seek to accumulate and
use natural and financial capital sustainably; environmental models basically dwell on biodiversity and
ecological integrity while social models seek to improve political, cultural, religious, health and
educational systems, among others, to continually ensure human dignity and wellbeing (Acemoglu &
Robinson, 2012; Evers 2018), and for that matter, sustainable development.
3.3. Sustainable development
Sustainable development has become the buzzword in development discourse, having been
associated with different definitions, meanings and interpretations. Taken literally, SD would simply
mean “development that can be continued either indefinitely or for the given time period (Dernbach,
1998, 2003; Lele, 1991; Stoddart, 2011). Structurally, the concept can be seen as a phrase consisting
of two words, “sustainable” and “development.” Just as each of the two words that combine to form
the concept of SD, that is, “sustainable” and “development”, has been defined variously from various
perspectives, the concept of SD has also been looked at from various angles, leading to a plethora of
definitions of the concept. Although definitions abound with respect to SD, the most often cited
definition of the concept is the one proposed by the Brundtland Commission Report (Schaefer &
Crane, 2005). The Report defines SD as development that meets the needs of the current generation
without compromising the ability of future generations to meets their own needs.
Acknowledging the pervasiveness of WCED’s definition, Cerin (2006) as well as Abubakar (2017)
argues that SD is a core concept within global development policy and agenda. It provides a
mechanism through which society can interact with the environment while not risking damaging the
resource for the future. Thus, it is a development paradigm as well as concept that calls for improving
living standards without jeopardising the earth’s ecosystems or causing environmental challenges
such as deforestation and water and air pollution that can result in problems such as climate change
and extinction of species (Benaim & Raftis, 2008; Browning & Rigolon, 2019).
Looked at as an approach, SD is an approach to development which uses resources in a way that
allows them (the resources) to continue to exist for others (Mohieldin, 2017). Evers (2017) further
relates the concept to the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while at the
same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem
services upon which the economy and society depend. Considered from this angle, SD aims at
achieving social progress, environmental equilibrium and economic growth (Gossling-Goidsmiths,
2018; Zhai & Chang, 2019). Exploring the demands of SD, Ukaga et al. (2011) emphasised the need to
move away from harmful socio-economic activities and rather engage in activities with positive
environmental, economic and social impacts.
It is argued that the relevance of SD deepens with the dawn of every day because the population
keeps increasing but the natural resources available for the satisfaction of human needs and wants do
not. Hák et al. (2016) maintain that, conscious of this phenomenon, global concerns have always been
expressed for judicious use of the available resources so that it will always be possible to satisfy the
needs of the present generation without undermining the ability of future generations to satisfy
theirs. It implies that SD is an effort at guaranteeing a balance among economic growth,
environmental integrity and social well-being. This reinforces the argument that, implicit in the
concept of SD is intergenerational equity, which recognises both short and the long-term implications
of sustainability and SD (Dernbach, 1998; Stoddart, 2011). According to Kolk (2016), this is achievable
through the integration of economic, environmental, and social concerns in decision-making
processes. However, it is common for people to treat sustainability and SD as analogues and
synonyms but the two concepts are distinguishable. According to Diesendorf (2000) sustainability is
the goal or endpoint of a process called sustainable development. Gray (2010) reinforces the point by
arguing that, while “sustainability” refers to a state, SD refers to the process for achieving this state.
4. History of sustainable development
Although the concept of SD has gained popularity and prominence in theory, what tends to be
neglected and downplayed is the history or evolution of the concept. While the evolution might seem
unimportant to some people, it nonetheless could help predict the future trends and flaws and,
therefore, provide useful guide now and for the future (Elkington, 1999). According to Pigou (1920),
historically, SD as a concept, derives from economics as a discipline. The discussion regarding whether
the capacity of the Earth’s limited natural resources would be able to continually support the
existence of the increasing human population gained prominence with the Malthusian population
theory in the early 1800s (Dixon and Fallon, 1989; Coomer, 1979). As far back as 1789, Malthus
postulated that human population tended to grow in a geometric progression, while subsistence
could grow in only an arithmetic progression, and for that matter, population growth was likely to
outstrip the capacity of the natural resources to support the needs of the increasing population
(Rostow & Rostow, 1978). Therefore, if measures were not taken to check the rapid population
growth rate, exhaustion or depletion of natural resources would occur, resulting in misery for humans
(Eblen & Eblen, 1994). However, the import of this postulation tended to be ignored in the belief that
technology could be developed to cancel such an occurrence. With time, global concerns heightened
about the non-renewability of some natural resources which threaten production and long-term
economic growth resulting from environmental degradation and pollution (Paxton, 1993). This re-
awakened consciousness about the possibility of occurrence of Malthus’ postulation and raised
questions about whether the path being chattered regarding development was sustainable (Kates et
al., 2001).
Similarly, examining whether the paradigm of global economic development was “sustainable”,
Meadows studied the Limits to Growth in 1972, using data on growth of population, industrial
production and pollution (Basiago, 1999; Rostow, 1978). Meadows concluded that “since the world is
physically finite, exponential growth of these three key variables would eventually reach the limit”
(Meadows, 1972). However, several academicians, researchers and development practitioners
(Dernbach, 2003; Paxton, 1993) argue that the concept of sustainable development received its first
major international recognition in 1972 at the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in
Stockholm. According to Daly (1992) and Basiago (1996), although the term was not referred to
explicitly, the international community agreed to the notion—now fundamental to sustainable
development—that both development and the environment hitherto addressed as separate issues,
could be managed in a mutually beneficial way.
Following these developments, the World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by
Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, renewed the call for SD, culminating in the development of the
Brundtland Report entitled “Our Common Future” in 1987 (Goodland & Daly, 1996). As already
mentioned, the report defined SD as development that meets the needs of current generation
without compromising the ability of future generation to meets their own needs. Central to the
Brundtland Commission Report were two key issues: the concept of needs, in particular the essential
needs of the world’s poor (to which overriding priority should be given); and the idea of limitations
imposed by the state of technology and social organisation on the environment’s ability to meet
present and future needs (Kates et al., 2001).
Jain and Islam (2015) intimate that the Brundtland report engendered the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (UNCED), known as the Rio Earth Summit, in 1992. The
recommendations of the report formed the primary topics of debate at the UNCED. The UNCED had
several key outcomes for SD articulated in the conference outcome document, namely Agenda 21
(Worster, 1993). It stated that SD should become a priority item on the agenda of the international
community” and proceeded to recommend that national strategies be designed and developed to
address economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development (Allen, Metternicht,
& Wiedmann, 2018). In 2002 the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), known as
Rio+10, was held in Johannesburg to review progress in implementing the outcomes from the Rio
Earth Summit. WSSD developed a plan of implementation for the actions set out in Agenda 21, known
as the Johannesburg Plan, and also launched a number of multi-stakeholder partnerships for SD
(Mitcham, 1995).
In 2012, 20 years after the first Rio Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (UNCSD) or Rio+ 20 was held. The conference focused on two themes in the context of
sustainable development: green economy and an institutional framework (Allen et al., 2018). A
reaffirmed commitment to SD was key to the conference outcome document, ‘”The Future We Want”
to such an extent that the phrase “sustainable development” appears 238 times within the 49 pages
(UNSD, 2018a). Outcomes of Rio +20 included a process for developing new SDGs, to take effect from
2015 and to encourage focused action on SD in all sectors of global development agenda (Weitz,
Carlsen, Nilsson, & Skånberg, 2017). Thus, in 2012, SD was identified as one of the five key priorities
by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in the UN action agenda, highlighting the
key role SD should play in international and national development policies, programmes and agenda.
5. Relationships among the environment, economy and society
The concept of sustainability appears poised to continue to influence future discourse regarding
development science. This, in the view of Porter and van der Linde (1995), implies that the best
choices are likely to remain those that meet the needs of society and are environmentally and
economically viable, economically and socially equitable as well as socially and environmentally
bearable. This leads to three interconnected spheres or domains of sustainability that describe the
relationships among the environmental, economic, and social aspects of SD as captured in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Relationships among social, environmental and economic sustainability.
Source: Wanamaker (2018)

Basically, it can be concluded from the figure that, nearly everything man does or plans to do on earth
has implications for the environment, economy or society and for that matter the continued existence
and wellbeing of the human race. Akin to this, as argued by Wanamaker (2018), the spheres
constitute a set of interrelated concepts which should form the basis of human decisions and actions
in the quest for SD. Yang (2019) supports the argument by opining that basically, the figure depicts
that proper decisions on sustainable resource management will bring about sustainable growth for
sustainable society. Examples of these include decisions on land use, surface water management,
agricultural practices, building design and construction, energy management, education, equal
opportunities as well as law-making and enforcement (Montaldo, 2013; Porter & van der Linde,
1995). The argument is that, when the concepts contained in the three spheres of sustainability are
applied well to real world situations, everybody wins because natural resources are preserved, the
environment is protected, the economy booms and is resilient, social life is good because there is
peace and respect for human rights (DESA-UN, 2018; Kaivo-oja, Panula-Ontto, Vehmas, & Luukkanen,
2013). Kahn (1995) and Basiago (1999) provide a vivid illustration regarding the relationships among
economic, social and environmental sustainability, arguing that the three domains must be integrated
for sustainability sake. According to Khan (1995) as cited in Bassiago (1999):
“If a man in a given geographical area lacks a job (economic), he is likely to be poor and
disenfranchised (social); if he is poor and disenfranchised, he has an incentive to engage in practices
that harm ecology, for example, by cutting down trees for firewood to cook his meals and warm his
home (environmental). As his actions are aggregated with those of others in his region cutting down
trees, deforestation will cause vital minerals to be lost from the soil (environmental). If vital minerals
are lost from the soil, the inhabitants will be deprived of the dietary nutrients required to sustain the
intellectual performance needed to learn new technologies, for example, how to operate a computer,
and this will cause productivity to reduce or stagnate (economic). If productivity stagnates
(economic), poor people will remain poor or poorer (social), and the cycle continues.”

The above hypothetical case illustrates the linkages among the three interconnected domains of
sustainability and the need to integrate them for SD (Basiago, 1999). Although this example may have
been oversimplified, it contextualises how the economic, social and environmental substrates of
sustainability relate to one another and can foster SD (Basiago, 1999; Khan, 1995).
6. Pillars of sustainable development
As a visionary and forward-looking development paradigm, SD emphasises a positive transformation
trajectory anchored essentially on social, economic and environmental factors. According to Taylor
(2016), the three main issues of sustainable development are economic growth, environmental
protection and social equality. Based on this, it can be argued that the concept of SD rests,
fundamentally, on three conceptual pillars. These pillars are “economic sustainability”, “social
sustainability”, and ‘environmental sustainability.
6.1. Economic sustainability
Economic sustainability implies a system of production that satisfies present consumption levels
without compromising future needs (Lobo, Pietriga, & Appert, 2015). Traditionally, economists
assuming that the supply of natural resources was unlimited, placed undue emphasis on the capacity
of the market to allocate resources efficiently (Du & Kang, 2016). They also believed that economic
growth would be accompanied by the technological advancement to replenish natural resources
destroyed in the production process (Cooper & Vargas, 2004). However, it has been realised that
natural resources are not infinite; besides not all of them can be replenished or are renewable. The
growing scale of the economic system has overstretched the natural resource base, prompting a
rethink of the traditional economic postulations (Basiago, 1996, 1999; Du & Kang, 2016). This has
prompted many academicians to question the feasibility of uncontrolled growth and consumption.
Economies consist of markets where transactions occur. According to Dernbach, (1993), there are
guiding frameworks by which transactions are evaluated and decisions about economic activities are
made. Three main activities that are carried out in an economy are production, distribution and
consumption but the accounting framework used to guide and evaluate the economy with regard to
these activities grossly distorts values and this does not augur well for society and the environment
(Cao, 2017). Allen and Clouth (2012) echo that human life on earth is supported and maintained by
utilising the limited natural resources found on the earth. Dernbach (2003) had earlier argued that,
due to population growth, human needs like food, clothing, housing increase, but the means and
resources available in the world cannot be increased to meet the requirements forever. Furthermore,
Retchless and Brewer (2016) argue that, as the main concern seems to be on economic growth,
important cost components like the impact of depletion and pollution, for example, are ignored while
increasing demand for goods and services continues to drive markets and infringe destructive effects
of the environment (UNSD, 2018c). Economic sustainability, therefore, requires that decisions are
made in the most equitable and fiscally sound way possible, while considering the other aspects of
sustainability (Zhai & Chang, 2019)
6.2. Social sustainability
Social sustainability encompasses notions of equity, empowerment, accessibility, participation,
cultural identity and institutional stability (Daly, 1992). The concept implies that people matter since
development is about people (Benaim & Raftis, 2008). Basically, social sustainability connotes a
system of social organization that alleviates poverty (Littig & Grießler, 2005). However, in a more
fundamental sense, “social sustainability” relates to the nexus between social conditions such as
poverty and environmental destruction (Farazmand, 2016). In this regard, the theory of social
sustainability’ posits that the alleviation of poverty should neither entail unwarranted environmental
destruction nor economic instability. It should aim to alleviate poverty within the existing
environmental and economic resource base of the society (Kumar, Raizada, & Biswas, 2014; Scopelliti
et al., 2018).
In Saith’s (2006) opinion, at the social level sustainability entails fostering the development of people,
communities and cultures to help achieve meaningful life, drawing on proper healthcare, education
gender equality, peace and stability across the globe. It is argued (Benaim & Raftis, 2008) that social
sustainability is not easy to achieve because the social dimension seems complicated and
overwhelming. Unlike the environmental and economic systems where flows and cycles are easily
observable, the dynamics within the social system are highly intangible and cannot be easily modelled
(Benaim & Raftis, 2008; Saner, Yiu, & Nguyen, 2019). As Everest-Phillips (2014) puts it, “the definition
of success within the social system is that “people are not subjected to conditions that undermine
their capacity to meet their needs”
According to Kolk (2016) social sustainability is not about ensuring that everyone’s needs are met.
Rather, its aims at providing enabling conditions for everyone to have the capacity to realize their
needs, if they so desire. Anything that impedes this capacity is considered a barrier, and needs to be
addressed in order for individuals, organization or community to make progress towards social
sustainability (Brodhag & Taliere, 2006; Pierobon, 2019). Understanding the nature of social dynamics
and how these structures emerge from a systems perspective is of great importance to social
sustainability (Lv, 2018). Above all, in Gray (2010) and Guo’s (2017) views, social sustainability also
encompasses many issues such as human rights, gender equity and equality, public participation and
rule of law all of which promote peace and social stability for sustainable development.
6.3. Environmental sustainability
The concept of environmental sustainability is about the natural environment and how it remains
productive and resilient to support human life. Environmental sustainability relates to ecosystem
integrity and carrying capacity of natural environment (Brodhag & Taliere, 2006). It requires that
natural capital be sustainably used as a source of economic inputs and as a sink for waste (Goodland
& Daly, 1996). The implication is that natural resources must be harvested no faster than they can be
regenerated while waste must be emitted no faster than they can be assimilated by the environment
(Diesendorf, 2000; Evers, 2018). This is because the earth systems have limits or boundaries within
which equilibrium is maintained.
However, the quest for unbridled growth is imposing ever greater demands on the earth system and
placing ever greater strain on these limits because technological advancement may fail to support
exponential growth. Evidence to support concerns about the sustainability of the environment is
increasing (Gilding: ICSU, 2017). The effects of climate change, for instance, provide a convincing
argument for the need for environmental sustainability. Climate change refers to significant and long-
lasting changes in the climate system caused by natural climate variability or by human activities
(Coomer, 1979). These changes include warming of the atmosphere and oceans, diminishing ice
levels, rising sea level, increasing acidification of the oceans and increasing concentrations of
greenhouse gases (Du & Kang, 2016).
Climate change has already shown signs of affecting biodiversity. In particular, Kumar et al. (2014)
have observed that higher temperatures tend to affect the timing of reproduction in animal and plant
species, migration patterns of animals and species distributions and population sizes. Ukaga et al.
(2011) have argued that while dire predictions abound, the full impacts of global warming are not
known. What is clearly advisable, according to Campagnolo et al. (2018) is that, for the sake of
sustainability, all societies must adjust to the emerging realities with respect to managing ecosystems
and natural limits to growth.
The current rate of biodiversity loss exceeds the natural rate of extinction (UNSD, 2018c). The
boundaries of the world’s biomes are expected to change with climate change as species are
expected to shift to higher latitudes and altitudes and as global vegetation cover changes (Peters &
Lovejoy (1992) cited in Kappelle, Van Vuuren & Baas (1999). If species are not able to adjust to
unfamiliar geographical distributions, their chances of survival will be reduced. It is predicted that, by
the year 2080, about 20% of coastal wetlands could be lost due to sea-level rise (UNSD, 2018c). All of
these are important issues of environmental sustainability because as already pointed out, they have
implications for how the natural environment remains productively stable and resilient to support
human life and development.
7. The sustainable development goals
Sustainable development relates to the principle of meeting human development goals while at the
same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem
services upon which the economy and society depend (Cerin, 2006). While the concept of sustainable
development has been relevant since time immemorial, it can be argued that the relevance deepens
with the dawn of every day because the population keeps increasing but the natural resources
available to humankind do not. Conscious of this phenomenon, global concerns have always been
expressed for judicious use of the available resources.
The latest of such concerns translated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MDGs were a sequel to the SDGs. The MDGs marked a
historic global mobilisation to achieve a set of important social priorities worldwide (Breuer,
Janetschek, & Malerba, 2019). However, in spite of the relative effectiveness of the MDGs, not all the
targets of the eight goals were achieved after being rolled out for 15 years (2000–2015), hence, the
introduction of the SDGs to continue with the development agenda. As part of this new development
roadmap, the UN approved the 2030 Agenda (SDGs), which are a call to action to protect the planet,
end poverty and guarantee the well-being of people (Taylor, 2016). The 17 SDGs primarily seek to
achieve the following summarised objectives.
Eradicate poverty and hunger, guaranteeing a healthy life
Universalize access to basic services such as water, sanitation and sustainable energy
Support the generation of development opportunities through inclusive education and decent work
Foster innovation and resilient infrastructure, creating communities and cities able to produce and
consume sustainably
Reduce inequality in the world, especially that concerning gender
Care for the environmental integrity through combatting climate change and protecting the oceans
and land ecosystems
Promote collaboration between different social agents to create an environment of peace and ensure
responsible consumption and production
(Hylton, 2019; Saner et al., 2019; UN, p. 2017).

According to the United Nation Communications Group (UNCG) and the Civil Society Organisation
(CSO) [2017] platform on SDGs in Ghana, the SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty,
protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Adopted by 193
countries, the SDGs came into effect in January 2016, and aim to foster economic growth, ensure
social inclusion and protect the environment. The UNCG-CSO (2017) argues that the SDGs encourage
a spirit of partnership among governments, private sector, research, academia and civil society
organisations (CSOs)—with support of the UN. This partnership is meant to ensure that the right
choices are made now to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations (Breuer et al.,
2019).
Agenda 2030 has five overarching themes, known as the five Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and
partnerships, which span across the 17 SDGs (Hylton, 2019; Guo, 2017; Zhai & Chang, 2019). They are
intended to tackle the root causes of poverty, covering areas such as hunger, health, education,
gender equality, water and sanitation, energy, economic growth, industry, innovation &
infrastructure, inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, consumption & production, climate
change, natural resources, and peace and justice. It can be argued from the SDGs that, sustainable
development aims at achieving social progress, environmental equilibrium and economic growth.
8. The debate about the SDGs
A key feature of the SDGs is that their development objectives and targets are basically
interdependent but interlinked (Tosun & Leininger, 2017). It is argued that the SDGs entail
complementarities or synergies as well as trade-offs or tensions which have implications for global
and national contexts. The complementarities imply that addressing one goal could help to address
some others at the same time. For instance, addressing issues of climate change could have co-
benefits for energy security, health, biodiversity, and oceans (Le Blanc, 2015). As opined by Fasoli
(2018), what needs to be noted is that, the SDGs are not standalone goals. They are interconnected,
implying that achieving one goal leads to achieving another and, therefore, they should be seen as
indispensable pieces in a big and complex puzzle (Kumar et al., 2014). In order to take advantage of
the complementarities among the SDGs, Taylor (2016) suggests that the various countries review the
numerous targets to identify the ones most likely to be catalytic as well as those that have multi-
pronged impacts, while also aiming to implement the entire agenda. This choice, according to Meurs
and Quid (2018), would have to be informed by country-specific priorities and resource availability. It
is also worth noting that because of the complementarities of many of the goals and target areas, a
single indicator may serve to measure progress across some goals and targets.
The complementarities and synergies aside, the SDGs also have trade-offs and tensions which come
with difficult choices that may result in winners and losers, at least in the short term. For example,
Espey (2015) argues that biodiversity could be threatened if forests are cut down for purposes of
increasing agricultural production for food security, while Mensah and Enu-Kwesi (2018) also argue
that food security could be in danger if food crops are switched to biofuel production for energy
security. The implication is that, striking the delicate balance between achieving high levels of
economic growth that contributes to poverty reduction and the preservation of the environment is
not easy.
It is further argued that the SDGs have competing stakeholder interests attached to them. In Le
Blanc’s (2015) view, tackling the issue of climate change (Goal 13) is a good example of the competing
interest. That is, those affected in the short term, such as fossil fuel business entities and their
workers would consider themselves as “losers” if they are compelled to change, even though society
as a whole will be the ultimate “winner” in the long term by avoiding the risks and impacts of climate
change (Tosun & Leininger, 2017). Keitsch (2018) continues that the trade-offs can present
governance issues, in the case of complex problems within the SDGs where the interests of different
stakeholders conflict. Another key challenge according to Spahn (2018) is ensuring responsibility and
accountability for progress towards meeting the SDGs. Several commentators, researchers and
academics (Mohieldin, 2017; Taylor, 2016; Yin, 2016) are of the opinion that this calls for appropriate
indicators and ways of monitoring and evaluating progress on the SDGs, especially at the national
level (Kanie & Biermann, 2017). In this regard, it would be important to measure both inputs and
output in order to check whether the various countries are investing what they set out to invest by
way of addressing the issues, as well as tracking outcomes to check if they are actually achieving the
set goals and targets (Allen et al., 2018; Breuer et al., 2019).
The UN Conference on SD, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012, brought some key issues to the fore,
including decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water,
oceans and disaster readiness which call for priority attention. In the area of food and agriculture for
instance, DESA (2013) estimates that about 800 million people are undernourished globally, and
about 220 million hectares of additional land would be needed to feed the world’s growing
population by 2030. An estimated value of revenue and savings from achieving the SDGs in food and
agriculture is $2.3 trillion. The top three opportunities in food systems are food waste reduction,
reforestation and development of low-income food markets which are estimated to create 71 million
jobs in the food markets, including 21 million across Africa and 22 million in India, where ample
cropland and current low productivity pave the way for growth. (DESA, 2013)
According to Ritchie and Roser (2018), over half of the global population already resides in urban
areas and this is expected to increase further to two-thirds by 2050. This will create socio-economic
costs and benefits in many sectors. Businesses can take advantage of creating healthy and liveable
cities to expand their operations, thus boosting employment. According to Jaeger, Banaji, and Calnek-
Sugin (2017), potential profit from achieving the SDGs in cities is estimated at $3.7 trillion with
approximately 166 million new jobs being in the areas of building, vehicle efficiency, affordable
housing, and other urban opportunities. More than 1.5 billion additional energy consumers are
anticipated by 2030 which is estimated to create about 86 million jobs and revenue of $4.3 trillion
through potential payoff of circular models, renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access.
Furthermore, in Jaeger, Banaji, and Calnek-Sugin’s, (2017) estimation, about $1.8 trillion revenue is
potentially available from improved healthcare that takes advantage of technological innovation and
other improvements in connection with the global health system, which is expected to create
approximately 46 million jobs through new business opportunities in health.
Additionally, environmentally-friendly infrastructure is needed for increased economic output and
productivity (Waage et al., 2015). Kappelle et al. (1999) have pointed out that infrastructure
investment in developing countries will need to increase from US$0.9 trillion to US$2.3 trillion per
year by 2020. These figures include an amount of US$200–$300 billion required to ensure that
infrastructure entails lower emissions and more resilience to climate change. According to UNDP
(2012), a relatively low estimate of the total annual climate change mitigation and adaptation costs
through 2030 is $249 billion; and this addresses only one threat (global warming) to the global
environmental commons. However, official development assistance (ODA) constitutes a relatively
small pool of finance, at approximately $130 billion annually (UNDP 2012). Other costs of
implementing the SDG include risks of over-exploitation and the huge financial resources needed for
the various investments. These show some of the socio-economic costs and benefits of SD but metrics
for assessing the impacts of SDGs remain controversial (Campagnolo et al, 2018).
Given the debate about the costs and benefits, the trade-offs, complementarities and complexities
inherent in the SDGs, the pertinent question that arises relates to how the UN can make countries
respect the SDGs. In this regard, it is advisable that the UN takes into account different national
realities, capacities and levels of development and respect national policies and priorities, ensuring
that they are focused on SD (Tosun & Leininger, 2017). Although all the SDGs apply generally to both
developing and developed countries, the challenges they present may be different in different
national contexts (O’Neill, Fanning, Lamb,& Steinberger, 2018). Therefore, UN should emphasise
universality with country-specific approach to the global goals (Allen et al., 2018). The UN could
impress upon the developed countries such as the US, UK, Japan and Canada to sustainably transform
their own societies and economies while contributing to achieving SD in the developing countries. The
UN should support countries by facilitating approaches that are conducive to meaningful
participation, engagement and dialogue as well as capacity building for all countries. The UN could
promote good governance and support inclusive education, regulation and efficient resource
allocation in all countries (Collste, Pedercini, & Cornell, 2017). The UN could promote appropriate
technology and innovation as evidence shows that the trade-off between environmental and
economic outcomes, for instance, can be overcome through the use of appropriate technology.
Above all, Breuer et al. (2019) add that the UN should involve not only governments, but also other
key stakeholders such as private sector, NGOs, and civil society in the global agenda and create
feedback loops to hold all responsible entities accountable to make sure that the SDGs are actually
implemented.
9. Principles of sustainable development
Achieving SD hinges on a number of principles. However, the preponderant message in regard to the
principles of sustainable development (Ji, 2018: Mensah & EnuKwesi 2018) gravitates towards the
economy, environment and society. Specifically, they relate, among others, to conservation of
ecosystem and biodiversity, production systems, population control, human resource management,
conservation of progressive culture and people’s participation (Ben-Eli, 2015; Molinoari et al., 2019).
One key principle of SD is the conservation of the ecosystem. There is the need to conserve the
ecosystem and biodiversity because without these, living organism will cease to exist. The limited
means and resources on the earth cannot be enough for the unlimited needs of the people. Over-
exploitation of the resources has negative effects on the environment and, therefore, for
development to be sustainable, exploitation of the natural resources must be within the carrying
capacity of the earth (Kanie & Biermann, 2017). This means development activities must be carried
out according to the capacity of the earth. That is why it is important, for instance, to have alternative
sources of energy such as solar, instead of depending heavily on petroleum products and hydro-
electricity (Molinoari et al., 2019).
Furthermore, in order to achieve SD, there is the need for population control (Taylor, 2016). People
eke out aliving by utilizing the limited resources on the earth. However, due to population growth,
human needs like food, clothing and housing increase while the resources available in the world for
meeting these needs cannot always be increased to meet the requirements. Therefore, population
control and management are essential for SD.
Wang (2016) opines that proper human resource management is another important principle of SD. It
is the people who have to ensure that the principles are adopted and adhered to. It is people who
have the responsibility to utilise and conserve the environment. It is people who have to ensure that
there is peace. This makes the role of human resource in the quest for SD critical. It implies that the
human knowledge and skill in caring for the environment, economy and society need to be developed
(Collste et al., 2017). This can be done basically through education and training as well as proper
healthcare services since a sound mind resides in a sound body. These elements could also assist in
developing positive attitude towards nature. Education can also influence society towards conserving
the environment and appreciating human values as well as acceptable production methods.
It is also argued that, the process of SD must be participatory in order to be successful and sustainable
(Guo, 2017). The argument, which connotes the systems theory, is premised on the notion that SD
cannot happen through the efforts of only one person or organisation. It is a collective responsibility
which requires the participation of all people and relevant entities. SD is built on the principle of
participation, which requires positive attitudes of the people so that meaningful progress can be
achieved with responsibility and accountability for stability.
Additionally, SD thrives on promoting progressive social traditions, customs and political culture
(Tjarve, & Zemite, 2016; Lele, 1991). Progressive traditional and political culture must be developed
and maintained or upheld and built upon to not only hold the society together but also help to value
and conserve the environment for SD. In a nutshell, the underlying summative principle of SD is the
systematic integration of environmental, social, and economic concerns into all aspects of decision-
making across generations. The SDGs reflect a balanced agenda of economic, social and
environmental goals and targets. In achieving the SDGs, countries will need to recognise and
appreciate the existence of potential trade-offs and devise ways to handle them. They should also
identify complementarities which can promote meaningful progress.
10. Conclusion
SD has attracted much attention in the academic, governance, planning and development
intervention space. A wide range of governmental and non-governmental entities appear to have
embraced it as an appropriate development paradigm. This is because most, if not all proponents and
advocates of the paradigm, virtually seem to concur that the challenges confronting humankind today
such as climate change, depletion of ozone layer, water scarcity, loss of vegetation, inequality,
insecurity, hunger, deprivation and poverty can be addressed by adhering to the tenets and principles
of SD.
The ultimate aim of SD is to achieve a balance among environmental, economic and social
sustainability, thus, making these the pillars on which SD rests. While not assuming a definitive
posture, sustainability of society can be said to depend on the availability of proper health systems,
peace and respect for human rights, decent work, gender equality, quality education and rule of law.
Sustainability of economy, on the other hand, depends on adoption of appropriate production,
distribution and consumption while sustainability of the environment is driven by proper physical
planning and land use as well as conservation of ecology or biodiversity. Although the literature is
awash with a plethora of definitions and interpretations of SD, implicit in the pervasive viewpoints
about the concept is intergenerational equity, which recognises both the short and long-term
implications of sustainability in order to address the needs of both the current and future
generations.
SD cannot be achieved through isolated initiatives, but rather integrated efforts at various levels,
comprising social, environmental and economic aspects. The successful implementation of the SDGs
will rely upon disentangling complex interactions among the goals and their targets. An integrated
approach towards sustainability would require realising the potentials of its key dimensional pillars
simultaneously, as well as managing the tensions, trade-offs and synergies among these dimensions.
More importantly, in managing the tensions of sustainability and sustainable development, a key role
has to be played by international organisations and agencies such as the UN, government of various
countries, nongovernmental organisations and civil society organisations.
SD thrives on the commitment of people and so in order to translate the concept into action, public
participation should be increased. All people must be aware and acknowledge that their survival and
the survival of the future generation depend on responsible behaviour regarding consumption and
production, environment and progressives social values. It is only by integrating the pillars can
negative synergies be arrested, positive synergies fostered, and meaningful SD made to happen. It
implies that economic, social and environmental “sustainability” form elements of a dynamic system.
They cannot be pursued in isolation for “SD” to flourish; therefore all decisions should seek to
encourage positive growth and equilibrium within the natural system. Although ensuring sustainable
development is everyone’s business, global, regional, national organisations as well as governments
and civil society organisations are advised and expected to show ownership, leadership and
citizenship.
11. Implications

Governments of all countries should promote “smart growth” through proper land use and alignment
of their economies with nature’s regeneration capacity. All countries should adopt appropriate
production and consumption practices that fully align with the planet’s ecological processes. This
could be done through taxation and subsidy policies which accentuate the acceptable and eliminate
unacceptable outcomes. In this respect, all countries should, for example, regarding pollution, enforce
the polluter-pays-principle whereby governments require environment-polluting entities to bear the
costs of their pollution rather than impose those costs on others or on the environment.
Population growth should be checked through population policies backed by legal frameworks. Unless
special action is taken, population growth coupled with increased resource consumption beyond what
the earth can accommodate, will lead to the decline in or the collapse of the environment, economy
and society. All countries need to have population policies that seek to check unbridled population
growth. In this connection, the UN should have a global policy on population growth and ensure that
member countries comply with the policy.
There is the need for all countries to formulate and implement social policies that foster tolerance,
social cohesion and justice as cornerstones of social interactions. This can be done by enshrining
universal human rights within a framework of citizenship, inclusion, equity and effective political
governance.
There should be constant education on SD by the UN and the governments of all countries as well as
civil society organisation to all people resident everywhere. The sensitisation programmes should be
directed at ensuring that every country’s residents understand the concept and principles of
sustainable development and engage in responsible environmental, economic and social behaviour as
well as accountable stewardship.
Sustainable development requires the generation and application of creative ideas and innovative
design and techniques. For this reason, the UN should partner with governments, private sector,
development agencies and civil society organisations (CSOs) to provide strong institutional and
financial support for universities and other research institutions for research into education,
agriculture, physical development planning and land use, information and communication technology
and health systems. All these should be backed by appropriate legal frameworks and strict
enforcement of regulations to ensure that all the stakeholder comply with the SD agenda.
In prosecuting the SD agenda, UN should acknowledge and consider different national capacities and
levels of development and respect national policies and priorities. The UN should also ensure that all
countries emphasise universality with country-specific approach to the global goals, and encourage
the developed countries to support the developing ones in the implementation of the global agenda.

12. Limitations and suggestions for further research

One major criticism that is often levelled against recursive abstraction as an analytical framework is
that, the final conclusions could be distant from the underlying data, depending on how the
summaries are carried out. The author, cognizant of the fact that poor initial summaries will certainly
yield an inaccurate final report, took care to document, through systematic notes, the reasoning
behind each summary step regarding inclusion and exclusion criteria from the intermediate
summaries. However, in spite of the measures to avoid the influence of this possible methodological
flaw on the outcome of this paper, the author does not arrogate to himself the virtue of perfection in
the production of the paper. Furthermore, although about 98% of the materials consulted for this
paper was in English, the rest were in other languages such as Chinese, which had either been
translated into English or used in other articles written in English by other researchers, academicians
and practitioners. The possible inherent weaknesses in these respects are acknowledged irrespective
of the author’s conviction about their negligible significance, if any. Additionally, while the paper has
dealt with the essential issues about SD, namely concepts, history, dimensions, principles, pillars, and
the implications of these for decision-making and action, issues of the three-dimensional pillars need
to be taken one by one and dealt with more intensively as they constitute the foundation of the SD
agenda.

15.) Outsourcing with ethics and sustainability in mind

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING | INGREDIENTS | REGULATORY

An increasing number of pharma businesses are taking steps to reduce costs and streamline
operations by outsourcing to the developing world. Supply chain specialist and Lime Associates’ Client
Director James Cooper outlines the importance of considering sustainability and ethical issues
As soon as any pharmaceutical business outsources production to another company, it relinquishes an
element of control over the manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain process. When outsourcing
to low-cost regions in the developing world, this raises serious issues surrounding the sustainability
and ethics of business practices of which the pharmaceutical industry needs to be aware. It is easy to
underestimate the social, environmental and economic impact of outsourcing, but failure to consider
this can have a real impact on a company’s reputation, as well as the quality, safety and long-term
viability of its products.
The social impact of outsourcing is impossible to overlook. All too often the benefits of outsourcing,
such as lower production and manufacturing costs, come with a human price attached. Lax
employment laws, exploitation, sweatshop production and unsafe working conditions are still
commonplace in many regions, and pharma companies must maintain vigilance across their entire
operations, including outsourcing. This doesn’t just mean looking at outsourced manufacturing plants
– it also means thinking about suppliers’ purchasing habits. Unless companies look specifically into the
raw material purchasing processes, it is entirely possible for inappropriate or even illegal practices to
be overlooked, and it is unlikely that any supplier will admit to unethical sourcing unless pushed
In developing countries, the further up the raw material chain one looks, the more likely one is to
encounter social sustainability issues. The legislation and infrastructure surrounding the farming,
cultivation and processing of crops and raw materials is underdeveloped, with child labour, poor
nutrition and exploited workers commonplace in many regions popular with outsourcers.

Ultimately, it is the outsourcing pharmaceutical company’s responsibility to ensure that all its
practices are above board
Ultimately, it is the outsourcing pharmaceutical company’s responsibility to ensure that all its
practices are above board, and in line with its own ethical standards. Should a company’s consumers
or other business buyers in the West discover that a business has been involved in unethical or even
illegal practices then blaming a supplier is no excuse.

Pharma companies looking to outsource to low-cost regions, such as the Far East, Central and South
America would do well to heed the hard lessons learned by the textiles and sportswear industry. The
negative impact on reputation caused by consumers discovering that a company has been involved,
either directly or indirectly, with sweatshops, child labour and pittance wages can have a serious
impact on any business. This is especially true for the pharmaceutical industry with its core focus on
patient welfare – consumers and business partners are unlikely to miss or forgive the hypocrisy, which
can have a serious effect on business performance.

Over the past decade, the industry as a whole has taken big steps to reduce the environmental impact
of its operations, but more can be done, especially with regard to outsourcing.

Pharma companies looking to outsource to low-cost regions, such as the Far East, Central and South
America would do well to heed the hard lessons learned by the textiles and sportswear industry
Outsourcing comes with its own environmental considerations. Just as in the food industry, intensive
cultivation, unsustainable harvesting, overfishing and tropical deforestation have huge long-term
implications for indigenous peoples, endangered species and the environment in the developing
world. If a supplier is sourcing local raw materials, it is crucial that these are sourced in a sustainable
manner.

The environmental impact of outsourced operations can also have a long-term financial impact.
Diminishing local supplies of raw materials or tightening legislation can have a knock-on effect on the
sustainability of future production, jeopardising on-going continuity of supply.

Even secondary aspects of product outsourcing can come with sustainability issues attached, and it is
easy to overlook aspects that can have real impact. For instance, if a business is outsourcing its
packaging, where is the wood used to create that packaging taken from? Fail to check and there could
be the chance that it is from South American hardwood, taken by clear-cut logging from the Amazon
rainforest
Raw material and packaging supply chains need to be examined
Ensuring that products are sourced and manufactured sustainably comes down to developing a full
understanding of the materials that outsourcers are using, and keeping a careful eye on their
purchasing processes, sources and systems. In the search for new treatments and medical
breakthroughs, pharma manufacturers are increasingly utilising more complex ingredients and
unusual raw materials, which can come from niche and potentially unsustainable sources. Many
choose to outsource small aspects of the production or processing, but no outsourcing is without risk.
When outsourcing production or processing of materials like these, it is vital that pharmaceutical
manufacturers look into the economic sustainability and scalability of the product and suppliers.
In a recent example, a start-up manufacturer, backed by a blue chip major, was developing a product
that included a type of non-commercial chitosan, sourced from a specific species of crab. Although
the raw material itself was available from a number of different suppliers, the raw material’s
phytotoxicity meant that it had to be specially processed to minimise the risk of allergic reaction in
patients. Unfortunately, by the time the start-up had completed the development process, the source
for this processed product had completely dried up. The start-up was unable to find an alternative
supplier and the backers saw no commercial advantage in establishing in-house production facilities
that would allow for the safe development of commercial quantities. This led to the funding being
withdrawn and the project being cancelled.

Before outsourcing any aspect of production to a supplier, pharmaceutical companies need to take
steps to ensure that the product is scalable and economically viable
Before outsourcing any aspect of production to a supplier, pharmaceutical companies need to take
steps to ensure that the product is scalable and economically viable, and that the supplier will be able
to meet future demands for the product. Where possible, sharing sales goals, strategy and aspirations
with suppliers to ensure that they are geared up to meet the on-going and future supply needs is
essential. Discussing long-term projections, capacity, timing plans, regulatory hurdles and core
business practice will reduce the chance of sustainability problems later down the line.

It is also good business practice to identify alternative (and sustainable) back-up sources, and to think
about the timing plan to bring them on stream before committing to outsourcing. Understanding just
how important a piece of outsourced business is to each supplier is a core aspect of the process.

A few years ago, Lime Associates was working to help optimise a medical device company’s supply
chain. The company had outsourced the development of a new product to one of Europe’s leading
chemical companies – but due to inconsistencies in the manufacturing process, no two batches were
identical, thus leading to technical issues. Instead of saving money, outsourcing had ended up
increasing costs substantially, once reprocessing and product batch rejection were taken into account.
To try and solve this, the MD travelled to Germany to see the Business Unit Manager to ask just how
important the account was; the Manager replied, ‘about 1½ days of production per year’. It was an
insignificant amount of work to the supplier, and was treated as such.

Looking back over the past decade, there have been plenty of high profile safety and sustainability
cases within the pharmaceutical industry that outsourcers can learn from. The deaths of 100 children
in Panama and 80 in Haiti due to the inclusion of diethyl glycol in medicines instead of pharma grade
glycerine shouldn’t be forgotten. Both these cases were traced back to Chinese chemical companies
that were not certified to manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients. State-owned and certified
exporters then sold the diethylene glycol to European manufacturers, who resold it without
identifying the original source.

Had any of those manufacturers taken the time and due diligence to ensure that the right processes
were being followed, it is likely that this could have been avoided.

Operating in or outsourcing to regions that don’t share the same regulatory systems increases the risk
of safety issues
Operating in or outsourcing to regions that don’t share the same regulatory systems increases the risk
of safety issues like this, which is why it is so important to take extra care when vetting suppliers.
There are clear themes that run through all the different aspects of sustainable outsourcing – the
importance of understanding materials, where they come from, and taking steps to mitigate the
potential ethical, social and economic issues.

When outsourcing, it is essential to spend the additional time and effort required to understand the
supply chain and materials in exactly the same way as if manufacturing in-house. Conducting web
searches and identifying potential suppliers is only the very start of the process. Manufacturers then
need to consider the wider picture and make a thorough audit of all the different suppliers involved.
Picking a cross functional team, with native language speakers if outsourcing abroad is a good starting
point that will help with every aspect of the planning and vetting process. With the latter, it pays to be
thorough. In addition to vetting suppliers, (looking at facilities, working practices, employment issues,
accreditation, capacity and regulatory compliance) it is good practice to examine the purchasing, and
the source of materials.

Identifying the key material drivers, looking at where components are manufactured, and taking a
keen interest in how a company chooses and vets its own suppliers will minimise risk down the line. It
is also important that outsourced suppliers understand and share in the same values and standards
when it comes to sustainability, ethics and the environment. This may mean undertaking an
education process, and setting out clear, unequivocal guidelines when it comes to acceptable working
and purchasing practices.

16.) LITERATURE REVIEW ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT _ The spirit and critics of SD and SDGs
Abstract
Although the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been adopted as the UN agenda for 2030,
and Sustainable Development (SD) has been growing as a concept since 1987 when the Brundtland
Report was published, both concepts SDGs and SD have still a way to go to become fully integrated by
the academy as part of political economy. Development today has gone beyond AID and relations
between Recipients and Donors, partnerships among stakeholders are being requested from
multilateral as well as from countries governments. It has been considered that to develop further the
research on partnerships with SD and SDGs, further understanding of these concepts beyond the blue
washing was necessary. This literature review (LR) addresses both concepts, SD and SDGs, as well as
the critics being made to them. As the bedrock of these concepts is found, it is expected that the basis
to build a structure to discuss how partnerships can be implemented upon. The following hypothesis
relating SD and SDGs with a new development paradigm is being tested: Sustainable Development
(SD) approach based on people, planet, and prosperity, aiming to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) is ambitious and creates a new paradigm of development. It takes the
multidisciplinarity and bottom-up approach, and it asks for multistakeholder participation. This LR will
approach the main documents used to arrive at the SDGs and will gather some of the highlights that
represent the spirit of these texts and their promoters. Keywords Sustainable Development;
Sustainable Development Goals; AID; blue washing; multidisciplinarity, multistakeholder.

17.) Sustainability Assessment of Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry: A New Hybrid Model Using
Combined Analytic Hierarchy Process and Two-Stage Additive Network Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract: Sustainable development has become the biggest concern of the semiconductor industry,
which plays a vital role not only in technology breakthroughs, but also by serving as an enabler for
sustainability. This study combines Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and additive network Data
Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the sustainable performance which are derived from
business growth stage and energy utilization stage through the parametric linear program.
Meanwhile, this method makes up the disadvantage of the weighting technique used additive
decomposition approach to the two-stage network and avoids biasing toward the second stage. The
findings demonstrate that Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing sector has exhibited a steady
increase in its overall trend of sustainability performance. According to the stage-level performance
results, the performance of business growth is better than energy utilization. However, the changing
trend of overall sustainability performance is through a steady increase from environmental efficiency
and not from economic efficiency.
Keywords: sustainability assessment; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); semiconductor industry
1. Introduction
With the dynamic evolution of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, in
which products such as computers, and integrated circuits (ICs) are playing a more vital role. With the
increasing popularity of new electronic products related to mobile devices and artificial intelligence
our safe and living environments have a high relevance with the quality and reliability of these
products. Semiconductors appear to be the soul of electronic products, and the semiconductor
industry produces a range of microelectronic components, so-called “chips,” that are seen as many of
the key components for economic development. According to WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade
Statistics), worldwide semiconductor revenue in the second quarter of 2018 reached US$117.9 billion
for year-to-year growth of 20.5%. The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) survey
showed that Taiwan’s ICs revenue in 2018 is expected to reach US$85.8 billion (5.9% growth from
2017). Hatami-Marbini and Kangi [1] indicated that the environmental and social externalities
associated with semiconductor manufacturing are likely to increase due to the usage of
semiconductors devices becomes more prevailing across different varieties of industries.
To the semiconductor industry, sustainable development is a critical concern. Due to the hundreds of
high-purity organic and inorganic waste disposal produced in manufacturing semiconductors have to
be treated environmentally [2]. Semiconductor industries play an important role not only in
unceasingly technology breakthroughs, but also by serving as an enabler for sustainability. The
challenges from industry competition [3,4], political and economic volatilities [5], and the operational
impact of climate change [6] cannot be avoided. To implement sustainability practices, Taiwan should
reconsider how to reduce energy consumption while maintaining economic growth. This paper is
concerned with measuring efficiencies during the sustainable operations of the semiconductor
industry.
Given the prevalence of the sustainability issue in the semiconductor industry, prior research has
focused on the dimension of sustainable capacity of technical learning [7], green supply chain [6],
capacity planning [8], and waste management [2]. The difficulty in attaining such a sustainable society
is that prior literatures do not have a methodology to accurately assess economic development and
pollution reduction in a unified manner, because recent growth has been usually associated with
various types of pollutions [9]. Proponents of environmental protection worry about pollution, while
opponents argue that controlling the pollution can reduce the pace of economic growth [10] by
limiting the operations of manufacturing industries. This issue can be addressed by the Data
Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique, because DEA applies to problems with multiple inputs and
multiple outputs [11], while also considering undesirable outputs. Thus, it can evaluate the
sustainability performance more precisely [12,13].
In order to assess sustainable development, previous studies have developed the variations of DEA
[12,13,14]. As stated above, the application of DEA provides a tool for the comprehensive assessment
of the environmental impacts and operational performances of multiple DMUs (Decision Making
Units). Wu et al. [15] examined environmental efficiency of a two-stage DEA system with undesired
outputs. The two-stage system consists of two parts: a production subsystem and a pollution
treatment subsystem. Hatami–Marbini et al. [16] developed a flexible cross-efficiency evaluation
methodology based on DEA for identifying supplier performance.
Motivated by those findings, this study presents a sustainability measurement framework in Taiwan’s
semiconductor industry through the additive efficiency decomposition approach for measuring the
efficiency of networks. The aim of this study lies not only in the generalization of the DEA filed, but
also in utilizing it from the Taiwan semiconductor industry. Our application differs from prior DEA
studies on the semiconductor sector in three essential ways as noted below.
Firstly, with the deeper development of economic globalization, the sustainability practice has
become an inevitable trend. Semiconductor industries play an important role by serving as an enabler
for sustainability in Taiwan. However, few studies to date have conducted a sustainability assessment
in the context of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. Therefore, our paper looks to fill this gap in the
literature. Through our modeling framework, these individual-level efficiency scores provide insight
into how the impacts which are derived from business growth or energy utilization are generated in
the semiconductor industry.
Secondly, this study proposes a new hybrid model to make up for some shortcomings in weight
through the additive efficiency decomposition approach [17]. The paper provides a comprehensive
view of the relationship between overall efficiency and stage efficiencies under varying weights. This
extension is essential in the DEA field. It is important to note here that in contrast to existing DEA
literature, we solve the non-linear DEA model directly, without resorting to reducing it to a variant of
classical linear DEA model.
Thirdly, MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making) methods are used in this study for finding the
“appropriate” pair of weights. This study uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to identify
the “optimal” weights in the model. In other words, AHP is used to examine the importance of the
two-stage performance whereby the overall efficiency is defined as a weighted average of stage
efficiencies and the weights are used to reflect the relative importance of individual stages. We
update the model and expand the application to the semiconductor industry by integrating the
economic and ecological aspects of this study.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a review of the DEA literature
on sustainability and two-stage DEA models. Section 3 introduces the methodology of the new hybrid
model using combined AHP and two-stage additive network DEA. Section 4 analyzes the sustainability
assessment of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. Finally, Section 5 presents the conclusion.
2. Assessment of Sustainability
Enhancing competitiveness and sustainability has been pursued by many if not all semiconductor
manufacturers [18]. Hung, He and Lu [4] evaluated the operating performances through dynamic DEA.
Hatami–Marbini et al. [19] proposed a four-step bounded fuzzy DEA model as an efficiency tool to
measure relative efficiencies. Hsu [3] integrated DEA and improved grey relational analysis (IGRA) to
measure the efficiency. Wang and Ho [20] combined the forecasting model of Grey theory and DEA to
help the semiconductor industry to select strategy alliance partners. Tsai, Wu, Chen, Chen, and Ye [5]
adopted traditional DEA models to explore benchmark corporations. Li et al. [21] generalized a three-
stage DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of innovation.
Because environmental protection and sustainable development are both important topics to discuss,
the semiconductor industry has increasing concerns about the sustainability of the environment [2].
Furthermore, due to rapid economic development, the increasingly severe effects of environmental
pollution have attracted widespread attention all over the world [22]. The semiconductor industry
assimilates green management into its business and implements continuous improvement projects in
the areas of climate change, energy management, water management, waste management, and air
pollution control. The goal is to facilitate coexistence and mutual prosperity between semiconductor
industry businesses and the environment [23].
There are various approaches across the literature regarding the assessment of sustainability [1,9].
Hatami-Marbini and Kangi [1] presented a case study from the semiconductor industry to
demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and the efficacy of the procedures and
algorithms [1]. Sueyoshi and Yuan [9] set up a new use of a DEA intermediate approach to evaluate
the sustainability of Asia nations.
Production (with pollutant byproducts called undesirable outputs) and pollution treated as a two-
stage system have aroused increasing attention in the sustainability management field. Undesirable
factors have been taken into account in measuring the efficiency of suppliers [24], eco-efficiency
[25,26], and resource and environmental efficiency [15,27]. The literature has also presented DEA
efficiency evaluation by considering undesirable factors, and undesirable factors can be regarded as
inputs or undesired outputs in the DEA models [13,22,28]. Scholars have developed different
techniques to deal with undesirable outputs in DEA [29]. Undesirable outputs are inevitably produced
along with desirable outputs [22].
Inefficient economic activities may result in excessive use of resources and high levels of pollution
emissions due to production processes rely on resource inputs [30]. Furthermore, environmental
efficiency cannot be separated from economic efficiency. Thus, the indicators in this context are
necessary for policymaking [31]. While the previous studies have focused on development of
environmental measures [27,32], this study propose a method that incorporates the financial and
ecological aspects of sustainability. Figure 1 depicts the empirical framework of assessing process
sustainability in this study. For our study of semiconductor firms’ sustainability performance in
Taiwan, we divide the network process into two sub-processes: the business growth process and the
energy utilization process. The former one focuses on applying inputs to produce desirable outputs
and undesirable outputs, while the following one focuses on the disposal of pollution and waste that
are produced in the former.
Sustainability 10 04070 g001 550Figure 1. Empirical framework of assessing process sustainability.
Note: italics are used for the undesirable items.
3. Research Design
3.1. Framework of the Performance Evaluation of the Semiconductor Industry
Sustainable development and sustainability evaluation have been of great interest to both academia
and practitioners in the past decades [33]. It is clear that large-scale production leads to high levels of
environmental pollution. Accordingly, the decision maker looks at the weight of sub-processes
differently in the presence of sustainability expectations. MCDM methods can support decision-
makers in this process [34,35], and used for finding the “appropriate” pair of weights. In other words,
we look to identify the “optimal” weights for the two-stage performance. The analysis of complex
decisions involves the evaluation of activities using multiple criteria to determine the best alternative
action. AHP is the popular method in decision making, which only needs the decision makers to
compare each pair of objects and provide their preference values. Since it was first introduced by
Saaty [36], AHP has been applied in many fields [35,37,38,39]. He and Zhang [38] proposed a model
integrated factor analysis (FA), DEA, with AHP for supplier selection. Kim, Jeon, Cho and Kim [39] used
the AHP to analyze the relative importance and performance of individual environmental
management tasks in the hospital. The relevant criteria and their relative importance are elicited from
the decision makers via pairwise comparisons of the AHP technique. The standard processes of the
AHP are also utilized here, such as inconsistency checking and resolution [40].
Based on the literature reviews [12,13,22], two-stage DEA is the most often used tool in sustainability
assessment. Even though this method is useful for efficiency measurement, it suffers from many
drawbacks. One major drawback of DEA is that it does not account for the weight of sub-processes in
deriving efficiency scores. To account for this limitation, we employ the AHP procedure to identify the
optimal weights for the two-stage performance. We consider a two-stage additive network DEA
model to assess the performance of the semiconductor industry and propose an efficient algorithm to
solve it. Similar to Guo, Abbasi Shureshjani, Foroughi and Zhu [17], we assume that the overall
efficiency of a two-stage network is a product of the efficiencies of two individual partners. Unlike
Guo, Abbasi Shureshjani, Foroughi and Zhu [17], this study expends the application of a two-stage
model with multiple objectives where the goal of the decision maker is to maximize the product of
the efficiencies of the individual stages.
3.2. Data Collection and Descriptive Statistics
Data on 15 companies in the semiconductor industry for the period 2014–2017 were obtained from
their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reports published in the Market Observation System
(MOPS) of Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE). CSR reports follow widely-adopted global guidelines set by
the Global Reporting Initiative for the transparent disclosure of corporate values and performances.
The period examined corresponds to sustainable development issues that are of most concern in the
semiconductor industry, whereby the CSR report is voluntary information disclosure. Disclosing
environmental information can assist people understand the impact of a company’s product on the
environment and further help supervise corporate social responsibility. The CSR report, which
including continuous improvement projects in the areas of climate change, energy management,
water management, waste management, and air pollution control, is a bellwether response to the
United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in the economic, environmental, and social
dimensions, which support global sustainability through concrete action. Data reflecting financial
performances of 15 companies are obtained from the Taiwan Economic Journal database.
This study follows previous works [12,13,14,15,25,27,41,42,43] and assume that the first stage of the
business growth process uses labour, operating expenses, and net fixed assets to produce sales,
power consumption, and water consumption that serve as intermediate outputs. Labour is measured
as the number of full-time employees. Operating expenses are measured as the expenditure that a
business incurs as a result of performing its normal business operations. Net fixed assets are the
residual difference between assets and liabilities. Power consumption and water consumption serve
as undesirable outputs to the first stage of production. Power consumption is measured as the
amount of electric power mainly used in manufacturing by process equipment and facility systems.
This output (sales, power and water consumption) from the first stage determines business growth
outcomes from the operating facility using the input financial and labour resources in the first stage.
The second stage of energy utilization focuses on reducing the pollution of the environment and the
management of natural resources. The second stage of the energy utilization process covers sales,
power consumption, and water consumption produced from the first stage to produce a set of
effluent drainage, wastes, and greenhouse gases as undesirable by-products from such production
[44]. Table 1 provides descriptive statistics on the inputs and outputs.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of input, intermediate, and output variables.
Table
3.3. Two-Stage Additive Network DEA Model
Economic activities use material resources, labor, and capital to produce desirable goods and services,
but simultaneously trigger additional effects on the natural environment and inevitably result in the
generation of pollution, such as greenhouse gases and wastewater [32,45]. Economic efficiency
reflects the ability of a production unit to obtain maximal output from a given set of inputs and the
production technology [15,37]. However, it does not imply resource and environmental efficiencies
[15,31,46].
The solutions of the environmental efficiency measures are complicated [27,41,42], especially for the
cooperative ecological efficiency measure, because they represent non-linear programming problems
[12,31]. The rational methods to address undesirable elements have been introduced into these
environmental efficiency measures [13,22,28], and more reasonable and straightforward ecological
efficiency measures have been investigated [47].
Previous studies note that two-stage DEA models are more efficient than single-stage ones since their
discriminatory power is higher [26,48,49]. The traditional DEA model neglects the connectivity of
internal economic activities and cannot express the management messages of those activities. The
internal economic activities are considered to be a “Black Box”. This study adopts the network DEA
performance evaluation model [50,51] to evaluate operational management performance and
changes in the performance efficiency of sustainable operations of the selected semiconductor
companies in the following network activities. Efficiency can be measured more appropriately by
using the two-stage additive network DEA approach [17]. When considering the difference between
input slack and output slack, this study uses “input-oriented efficiency” to evaluate the performance
of the semiconductor industry (as DMUs).
This study first considers the process that deals with DMUj(j=1,?,n). We denote the multipliers for the
above factors as: Vq is the weight for the input component mq entering the process at the beginning
of stage 1; and uh is the weight for the output component rh flowing from stage 1 and is also the
multiplier for that same component as it becomes an input to stage 2. At each term, xk is the weight
for the input component o2k entering the process at the beginning of stage 2, and zs is the weight for
the output component ns at stage 2. Therefore, this study defines the input-oriented efficiency of
stages 1 and 2 by solving the program as follows:
?1=?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqo,?2=?Ss=1zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko).
(1)
This study adopts the network DEA performance evaluation model [17]. Under the additive efficiency
decomposition approach, the overall efficiency score can be defined as a weighted average of the
two-stage efficiencies as follows:
?*o=w?1+(1-w)?2.
(2)
Thus, we can write the overall efficiency ?*o in the form:
?*o=max[w?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqo+(1-w)?Ss=1zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko)].
(3)
We adopt the network DEA performance evaluation model [52] and then set out to optimize the
overall efficiency ?*o of the multistage process, subject to the restrictions that the individual
measures ?q must not exceed unity, or under the linear programming format after making the usual
Charnes and Cooper transformation. This study defines the input-oriented overall efficiency as a ratio
ranging between 0 and 1, which attains a value of 1 when all slacks are zero [53]. This objective
function value is also unit-invariant. Following [17], we let d=1/?Qq=1?qmqo and set uh˜=duh,?q˜=d?
q,zs˜=dzs,xk˜=dxk. The following input-oriented VRS-based network DEA model for estimating the
input ?*o of a firm in envelopment is in converted form as:
?*o=max[w?Hh=1uh˜rho+(1-w)?Ss=1zs˜nso/(?Hh=1uh˜rho+?Kk=1xk˜o2ko)],s.t.(?Hh=1uh˜rjh)=?
Qq=1?q˜mjq,(?Ss=1zs˜njs)=(?Hh=1uh˜rjh+?Kk=1xk˜o2jk)?j,?Qq=1?
q˜mqo=1uh˜,vq˜,zs˜,xk˜=0;0=w=1,?h,q,s,k.
(4)
If the optimal solution for (4) satisfies ?*o=1, then DMUo is called overall input-oriented efficient or
briefly overall efficient. We let f=1/?Hh=1uh˜rjh+?Kk=1x˜ko2jk and set z's=fz˜s,x'k=fx˜k Model (4) is
then converted to:
?*o=max[w?Hh=1uh˜rho+(1-w)?Ss=1z'snso],s.t.(?Hh=1uh˜rjh)=?Qq=1?q˜mjq,(?Ss=1z'snjs)=(?
Hh=1uh˜rjh+?Kk=1x'ko2jk)?j,?Qq=1?q˜mqo=1f?Hh=1uh˜rjh+?
Kk=1x'ko2jk=1uh˜,vq˜,zs˜,xk˜=0;0=w=1,f>0,?h,q,s,k.
(5)
For each fixed w, the above model can be solved by a sequence of linear programs by varying f and
searching for the best (global) solution. We present the bounds of stage efficiency scores for all
weights of the maximal efficiency scores for the first stage and the second stage as:
?¯1=max?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqo,?¯1=max?Sh=1Zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko), subject to the
constraints of ( 5 ).
(6)
Next, the minimum efficiency scores for the first stage and the second stage are:
?¯1=max?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqos.t.?Ss=1zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko)=?¯2, subject to the
constraints of ( 5 )?¯2=max?Ss=1zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko)s.t.?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqo=?
¯1, subject to the constraints of ( 5 ).
(7)
Note that the optimal multipliers obtained from (5) may not be unique [17], implying that ?1 and ?2
are not unique. Therefore, in the spirit of [17], the overall efficiency score for DMUj can be calculated
by model (3), and the maximum achievable values of ?1 and ?2 can be determined via model (8),
respectively.
?+1=max?Hh=1uhrho/?Qq=1?qmqos.t.w?Ss=1zsnso/?Hh=1uhrho+(1-w)?Kk=1xko2ko=?*0, and the
constraints of ( 5 )?+2=max?Ss=1zsnso/(?Hh=1uhrho+?Kk=1xko2ko)s.t.w?Ss=1zsnso/?Hh=1uhrho+(1-
w)?Kk=1xko2ko=?*0, and the constraints of ( 5 )
(8)
On the other hand, the minimum of ?1 and ?2 can be determined via model (9), respectively.
?-1=?*0-(1-w)?+2w,?-2=?*0-(1-w)?+1w,.
(9)
Note that ?-1=?+1 if and only if ?-2=?+2. If ?-1=?+1 and ?-2=?+2, then stage efficiencies ?1 and ?2 are
uniquely determined via model (5). Furthermore, the upper and lower values of the new overall
efficiencies are equal when ?-1=?+1 or ?-2=?+2. This indicates unique stage efficiency, and the new
overall efficiency is thus uniquely determined.
4. Empirical Results
4.1. Overview of the Semiconductor Industry’s Overall and Stage-Level Performances
This section describes the evaluation of the efficiencies of 15 companies in Taiwan’s semiconductor
manufacturing sector. The overall efficiency of the model is the proposed sustainability efficiency, and
it remains unchanged, indicating that the variation in the original overall efficiency is a result of
changing alpha only when stage efficiencies are unchanged [17]. As it stands, the model is able to
identify the best performers and provide realistic and applicable target objectives and peer groups.
Table 2 presents the results of the AHP method to identify the “optimal” weights by ten experts in the
semiconductor manufacturing field for the two-stage performance, and this method is able to resolve
the problem under which the two management processes may influence overall performance. The
weight via the AHP method gives a reasonable evaluation of the DMUs’ overall efficiencies, and it also
provides more information to facilitate improvement. Thus, the weights via MCDM method seem to
be a more scientific process for environmental assessments. The measurements considering the
intensity of importance between the two stages are made based on the standard AHP scale from 1 to
9. The relative importance weights from a set of criteria via pairwise comparisons are 0.575 in the
business growth stage and 0.425 in the energy utilization stage, as shown in Table 2. This suggests an
unequal division of weights among these two stages of assumptions, especially when individual
effects are assessed.
Table 2. Weight scores of the two stages.
Table
Following [17], we apply the new overall efficiency index to address some pitfalls in the weighted
additive efficiency decomposition. Table 3 lists the 15 performers in overall management estimated
by applying a non-parametric DEA approach by [17]. These results, which use the “optimal” weights in
Table 3, indicate that the overall performance efficiency scores are 0.638, 0.630, 0.643, and 0.666 in
the period 2014–2017. The changing trend of the overall sustainability performance of Taiwan’s
semiconductor manufacturing sector shows a steady increase.
Table 3. Efficiency scores for the performance of the DMUs.
Table
As the existing literature explains, the two-stage model distinguishes the information from each stage
that cannot be recognized in the overall efficiency [54]. Calculating the two component efficiencies as
well as the overall efficiency can assist an organization in determining the sources of inefficiency [43].
First, the environmental efficiencies of the overall semiconductor industry are lower than economic
efficiencies from 2014 to 2017. Apart from environmental efficiencies, we notice that half of the
DMUs perform well in economic efficiency, with an average efficiency value above 0.9. Financial
performance is mainly determined by revenue growth and consistent improvement in profitability,
and financial performance is the key to corporate sustainability.
The efficiency scores in the first stage are 0.787, 0.766, 0.781, and 0.769 during year 2014 to 2017.
The efficiency of the business growth stage has remained constant for the whole semiconductor
industry. On the other hand, the environmental efficiency fluctuates throughout a steady increase.
The efficiency scores in the second stage are 0.456, 0.465, 0.473, and 0.541, respectively. In other
words, the overall sustainability efficiency of the semiconductor industry increases due to
environmental efficiency and not from economic efficiency. As a matter of comparison, the
environmental efficiency within this industry may be significantly rising, because of the increasingly
strict environmental protection regulations and the significant increase in demand for raw materials
and the expansion of advanced production processes in the domestic semiconductor industry.
We now decompose these two different efficiency scores concerning individual stage and time
effects. This model allows us to quantify contributions of the two stages (both desirable and
undesirable factors). Table 3 presents the results for the efficiency scores of the two stages. In the
two-stage approach, a DMU is efficient if and only if it is both efficient in the business growth stage
and energy utilization stage. Thus, no firm is efficient, and this information is of value, because it
implies there is still much room for improvement in sustainability efficiency. According to the
efficiency results of the individual stage-level process, thirteen of the fifteen companies exhibit better
business growth and energy utilization from year 2014 to 2017.
This study evaluates environmental efficiency by incorporating environmental impacts as undesirable
outputs generated by the production process. These results reveal that generally the environment
pollution generated by Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing sector is not well controlled. For the
sustainability concepts that can reduce undesirable outputs from the given inputs and desirable
outputs, it is imperative to act within the scope of current production technology [31]. As such, the air
pollution brought about by the semiconductor manufacturing industry is composed mainly of volatile
organic compounds as well as acidic and alkaline gases. Hence, the empirical evidence suggests that
the inefficiency levels of undesirable output show that greenhouse gases significantly reduce
environmental efficiency, meaning there is still huge space for improvement.
4.2. Individual-Level Performance in the Semiconductor Industry
In order to further illustrate individual-level performance, we apply a benchmarking method applied
on the companies to find the best role-models so that others can learn from them with an aim at
effectively improving their own operating performance, as well as to analyze the gap between them
and the role-model firms with the added goal of strengthening competitive advantages and operating
performance through continuous improvement [55]. GETI (0.957, 0.985, 0.923), FSTC (0.982, 0.992,
0.969), VTSC (0.923, 0.982, 0.850), and WWC (0.883, 0.853, 0.919) have high relative efficiency in
“overall efficiency”, “operational efficiency”, and “environmental efficiency” and thus could be used
as a reference by other companies.
Good overall performance may not represent good operational management process performance
[49] or good environmental management performance. For example, the overall efficiencies of UMC
and EM show an average of 0.558 and 0.554 during the period of this study. There seems to be no
significant difference between the two companies. It is worth noting that EM (0.998) achieves the
highest operational efficiency scores in the efficiencies of the individual stages, whereas UMC
achieves the lowest score (0.281). Unless environmental measures are explicitly incorporated in an
aggregate measure, economic performance measures will not accurately reflect their impact [14]. The
hybrid approach using combined AHP and additive DEA is useful for evaluating the additive efficiency
decomposition provided from the valuable information of the top management team (TMT). From
this discussion, we can conclude that it is crucial to integrate company internal resource for achieving
long-term operational target aimed at promoting sustainable development.
If an individual company succeeds at improving its recycling capabilities, then it will achieve high
environmental efficiency scores. For a company to deliver high sustainability development, it should
not just aim at improving recycling capabilities, but also look to enhance the synergies between
economic growth and environmental protection. We may conclude that as the semiconductor
industry continues to grow, its requirements for sustainable measures such as energy conservation,
carbon reduction, water savings, and waste reduction will all continue to increase as well, and thus
companies must devote more attention to the issue of environmental sustainability.
4.3. Efficiency Analysis of the Comparison under the Traditional DEA Approach
As a matter of comparison, Table 4 presents the results of the traditional two-stage DEA approach,
with the first-stage efficiency scores being 0.754, 0.761, 0.736, and 0.794 in the period 2014–2017.
The efficiency of the business growth stage has remained constant. The second-stage efficiency scores
are 0.552, 0.566, 0.557, and 0.576 in the same period, which are consistent with the empirical results
of Section 4.1, showing that the performance of business growth is better than energy utilization.
Table 4. Efficiency scores by the traditional network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach.
Table
According to the analysis given above, similar conclusions can be reached by comparing the
distribution of the number of efficient DMUs in different years, indicating there is great potential for
improvement in the production process comprising multiple stages. It is also worth noting that
environmental efficiency scores in the traditional DEA approach tend to from a higher assessment, so
that the semiconductor manufacturing sector may be overestimating its performance in the
development of environmental protection. Although we find a similar result that the changing trend
of overall sustainability performance still exhibits a steady increase, the problem of the decision over
the weights remains unresolved. Table 4 shows the overall performance efficiency scores are
changing according to varying weights (with alpha = 1…9). These results suggest not only the impacts
of variables that are selected by the model, but also the impacts of varying weights.
We now compare the decision of the weights in this study with previous studies. The efficiency was
calculated, for example, as the arithmetic average of stage efficiency [56], or through a set weight of a
= 0.5 [57], common set of weights [26]. Prior literature demonstrated the differences between the
product of stage efficiency scores and weights [58]. However, the overall efficiency scores are
changing according to varying weights. The overall efficiency’s variation should reflect changes in the
stage efficiencies, and we recommend using the newly-defined overall efficiency after the calculations
are performed. Decision makers can choose the stage efficiencies to maximize the new overall
efficiency score [17]. From the previous analysis, one can gain insights concerning the overall score is
a function of the score at each stage of production.
Under the weights of the AHP method, we examine whether any unique efficiency decomposition
exists. We assume the overall efficiency of a two-stage network is the product of the efficiencies of
two individual parts. In other words, our approach provides a comprehensive view of the relationship
between the overall efficiency and the stage efficiencies under the varying weights.
For illustration purposes, we set w=j10, j=1…9, and when the parameter ft=1/?1-0.01*t. approaches
the lower bound of 0, the algorithm ends. We treat the maximal value from the t calculations as the
global optimal solution. The upper and lower values of the new overall efficiency are equal when ?-
1=?+1 or ?-2=?+2. This indicates unique stage efficiency, and the new overall efficiency is uniquely
determined. Guo, Abbasi Shureshjani, Foroughi and Zhu [17] noted that the information on the
overall and stage efficiencies under various weights could be useful in empirical applications. That is
the exciting aspect of the differentiation between previous analyses that incorporate the specific
weight into the additive DEA model and attempt to decompose these two different efficiency scores
concerning individual and time effects.
5. Conclusions
This paper contributes to the literature on semiconductor industry efficiency by introducing a new
hybrid model that combines AHP and two-stage additive network DEA to estimate sustainability
efficiency in the presence of multiple undesirable outputs. This method makes up the disadvantage in
weighting technique used additive decomposition approach to the two-stage network could bias
toward the second stage. Through our modeling framework, we are able to ascertain whether overall
inefficiency results from the inefficiency of an individual stage-level process, an internal resource
imbalance, or both. The findings herein provide more insights and new information on semiconductor
industry performance and management practices.
Consider just efficiency decomposition is one explicit limitation of traditional DEA models in regard to
how to decide the appropriate weight of the network structure. To overcome the gap in the literature
between overall efficiency and stage efficiencies under varying weights, this study uses AHP of the
MCDM method to identify the “optimal” weights for the two-stage performance. The relative
importance weights from a set of criteria via pairwise comparisons are 0.575 in the business growth
stage and 0.425 in the energy utilization stage. Thus, we are able to identify semiconductor
companies that operate below peer performance by incorporating the financial and ecological aspects
of sustainability.
Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing sector has exhibited a steady increase in its overall trend of
sustainability performance. The integration of environmental impacts, as undesirable outputs, has
been considered in various environmental efficiency assessments. The differences reflect that the
level of undesirable output has a great influence on the sustainable development of semiconductor
companies. According to the stage-level performance results, the performance of business growth is
better than energy utilization; thus, the changing trend of overall sustainability performance is
through a steady increase from environmental efficiency and not from economic efficiency. On the
other hand, these individual-level efficiency scores provide insight into how the impacts which are
derived from business growth or energy utilization are generated in the semiconductor industry.
From the policy and management perspective, the results of this study are compared with the results
of the traditional DEA model. However, the semiconductor manufacturing sector may be
overestimating its performance in the development of environmental protection through the
traditional DEA model. Therefore, our new hybrid model allows the TMT of semiconductor firms to
scrupulously identify whether changes in their firm’s environmental pollution are driven by changes in
effluent drainage, wastes, and/or greenhouse gas emissions. One interesting direction for future
research would be to add the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) into the
analysis for examining a company’s sustainability. Another one is the evaluation the social efficiency
to measure the ability of a company to convert its produced wealth into the quality of life. Moreover,
the model can take into consideration the weights of inputs or outputs.
Author Contributions
S.-W.L. and W.-M.L. built the evaluation system and the two-stage additive network DEA Model, and
performed the research together. S.-W.L. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. F.L. revised
the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

18.) A literature-based review on potentials and constraints in the implementation of the sustainable
development goals

Highlights
•
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should shift the world towards a sustainable and resilient
pathway.
•
The SDG Agenda calls for global partnerships at all levels.
•
A novel framework to tackle barriers and challenges is needed.
•
We need to operationalize and monitor the implementation of the new 2030 agenda.
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by Heads of Government in 2015 represent a
major multilateral effort to shift the world towards more sustainable and resilient pathways, also
taking into account the needs of developing countries. The SDG Agenda calls for a global partnership –
at all levels – between all countries and stakeholders who need to work together to achieve the goals
and targets, including a broad spectrum of actors such as multinational businesses, local
governments, regional and international bodies, and civil society organizations. The purpose of this
paper is to present a comprehensive review of the literature and develop a novel framework in order
to tackle the barriers and challenges to operationalize and monitor the implementation of the SDGs.
To achieve this, this paper reports on a state-of-the-art review of the SDGs, with a particular emphasis
on their applications and linkages with sustainability science and aspects of knowledge management.
This paper also reviews the rationale and aims of the Sustainable Development Goals, outlines some
of the problems and barriers related to their implementation, and presents some areas which deserve
future attention. Ultimately, this paper seeks to uncover the various gaps and suggests some means
via which some of challenges seen in the accomplishment of the 17 SDGs may be faced.
Keywords
Sustainable development goals
Sustainability science
Knowledge management
Interdisciplinary
2030 agenda
Stakeholder engagement
19.) The Role of Research in Attaining Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract- A study on the significant roles of research in the realization of the Sustainable
Development Goals was carried out to analyze the facts and figures gotten through secondary
information’s to determine the resultant effect of research in the pursuance of the SDGs. This
research explores various opinions of several authors and researchers towards the concept of
research in totality. This study gave clear indications that research as a full concept is not a cliché and
it is revolving year-in year-out in our contemporary world of interest as the need for human survival
on the planet earth gets more prioritized on the agenda of the various sustainability organizations like
UNESCO, United Nations, UNEP, IISD. This is the present century’s goal and it is all NGOs and other
private parastatals are enjoined to be part of this move as it is a collective effort to seeing its
realizations.
KEYWORDS: Research, Sustainable, Development, Goals, United Nation.
1. Introduction
The advent of the popularly known SDGs was birthed by the United Nations The concept of
development
has its significance with respect to its transformed approaches to the social and economic, and it took
its
root in the previously formed organization called the United Nations in the 1940s and 1950s. Guthrie
&
Humphrey, [1]. This was further propelled as it continued even during the period of the 1960s and
1970s,
although during this period, there were two majorly opposing movements in development concept
and they
had gained relevant recognition. One was known with broadening the scope and premise of the
strategies
for development with full considerations for social factors as it includes employment, education,
nutrition,
health, income distribution, poverty reduction, basic needs, the environment.
In recent years, the United Nations have tried severally to make the word a better place for people to
live
including the destitute and rich. In pursuance of this, the United Nations had put various polices in
place
which are all poised towards achieving the set goals. In the documentations of Hwang & Jiwon, [2],
Lennon,
[3]. and UNDP, [4] it was recorded that owing to the ravaging challenges faced by a lot of people
across
the globe, ranging from rampant epileptic lifestyle of the people to poverty, gender segregation and
dichotomy, ecosystem depletion, and the likes. This lead to the conglomeration of leaders from 189
countries in a meeting that held in the UN headquarters in New York in September 2000. The
resolution of
the meeting birthed the popularly known MDG (Millennium Development Goals). Rahdari et al., [5].
This
was meant to address the development bottlenecks round the various nations of the world. Upon the
review
of the MDGs made by the United Nation in 2015, several shortcomings were discovered pertaining
the
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effectiveness of the MDGs. This review eventually birthed the currently known SDGs (Sustainable
Development Goals). Although the millennium goals that was way back established by the SDGs had
some
level of achievement, but notwithstanding, the Sustainable development goals was initiated to
improve on
the deficiencies of Millennium goals implemented earlier thus, covering 17 core necessities for living
that
spans through quality research to environmental sustainability. Several researches have worked on
the
various contributions made to enhancing the achievement of the SDGs thus far as stated by Ul et al.,
[6].
However, there cannot be substantial measurable contributions without research and that is why this
study
is carried out to investigate the significance or the roles of research to aiding the attainment of the
Sustainable Development Goals
2. Conceptual Issues: History of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), Justification of
Problem in Attaining the SDGS
Development according to the Cambridge Dictionary is defined as the process though which an
individual
or something would grows or transform and gets more advanced. Development in its simplest form is
defined to be ”good transformation” Boateng et al.,[7] . Development is also defined as a course or
process
of change and its dynamics, Remenyi, [8]. Development might happen as a result of certain deliberate
steps
or actions displayed by individual agents or through polices made and orders from some authorities
by
some authority with the aim attaining substantial improvement, in the utmost favour of surrounding
circumstances, Bellù, [9]. Although sustainable development has been largely defined by several
scholars,
but according to Cerin, [10] and the proposed definition by the Brundtland Commission, Dernbach
[11]
says Sustainable development is an improvement that addresses the issues of the present without a
compromise on meeting the needs of the generations to come the capacity of the future to address
their
peculiar issues. Stoddart, [12]. According to the National Assembly for Wales [13], It comprises of two
ideas:
The impression of 'needs', definitely the essential needs of the world's destitute, to which
prevailing need ought to be given; and
The likelihood of constraints forced through the state of innovation with social
association on the condition's ability to meet the contemporary and forthcoming needs.
Sustainable Development as further classified by Hedenus, et al., [14] and Emas, [15] has three
scopes:
environmental, financial/economic, and social.
The natural measurement includes maintaining the earth's creation limit and not
surpassing the earth's assimilative limit.
The monetary measurement includes effectively overseeing limited common assets and
capital as long as possible.
The social measurement includes societal establishments that are essential for human
needs, for example, majority rules system, put stock in, law, and global associations.
2.1 History of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)
In the year 2000, The UN Millennium Declaration was received, with eight objectives to be achieved
by
2015. Every one of the 189 individuals from the UN and 23 global associations conceded to these
objectives
as reported by Hedenus et al., [14]
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
Cut outrageous yearning and destitution significantly
Achieve widespread important training
Promote sexual alignment correspondence
Decline child death
Improve maternal wellbeing
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Battle HIV/AIDS, intestinal sickness, and different ailments
Guarantee ecological supportability
Build up a universal organization for development
The Millennium Development Goals exhibited a more noteworthy spotlight on advancement
contrasted
with earlier dialogs; just a single objective (#7) had an immediate association with natural issues.
Rather,
issues with a greater amount of a natural concentration were tended to through other fora, for
example, the
worldwide atmosphere arrangements under UN Agenda Convention on Weather Change and
significant
condition and advancement traditions like the one held in the city of Johannesburg, in South Africa, in
the
year 2002.
The last came to be called "Rio+10" yet did not get as much consideration as the 1992 meeting and is
viewed as less imperative. Be that as it may, concurrences on water what's more, fisheries came out
of
Johannesburg. Just like the case with different affirmations, the Millennium Declaration and the eight
objectives have been viewed as pretty, yet void, words that are not official. In any case, a key
distinction
from different announcements lies in the work done to recognize quantifiable objectives that are
anything
but difficult to track and survey. The objectives have had several effects in how worldwide and
national
aids are taken care of. The outcomes have been blended. Certain objectives, for example, decreasing
considerably the quantity of the world's poor, have been accomplished at the worldwide total level,
while
others, for example, expanding fairness between ladies and men, have not been accomplished and
still
appear to be far off.
In 2012, the time had wanted the following huge worldwide maintainability tradition, once again in
Rio de
Janeiro, "Rio+20." The event additionally denoted the start of arrangements on new objectives to
supplant
those of the Millennium Declaration after 2015. In light of the announcement, that "destitution is the
best
worldwide test" and Agenda 21 work in progress on new maintainable advancement objectives. In
September 2015 the UN embraced the 17 supportable improvement objectives (SDGs) spreading over
a
wide cluster of branches of knowledge and taking natural issues back to the fore. Not at all like the
eight
objectives of the Millennium Declaration, have the new objectives incorporated particular focuses for
urban
areas, maintainable utilization, atmosphere affect, marine assets, and land-based biological systems.
Sachs,
[16] said from a logical perspective that the MDGs also had a reasonable feat of accomplishment
across
some of the stipulated scope of the goals during the span of its existence. Some of the efforts made
were
significant to a measurable extent as the Millennuim Development Goals (MDGs) was well
appreciated.
However, there were some short comings that made the MDGs not effectively achieved owing to
several
factor cut across various scopes of influence. Some of the shortcomings were result effects of the
basis upon
which the goals set initially and some modifications that came alongside the process of execution and
pursuance of the goals. Some of the carefully observed shortcomings of the Millenium Development
Goals
of the United Nation are listed thus;
Lack of Intermediate objectives and milestone
Outdated data
Non-participation of private sectors
Lack of societal investment/contribution
While the Millennium Declaration objectives were for the most part centered around the poorest
countries,
this time the reason for existing was to incorporate objectives that draw in and urge all countries to
act. As
recorded by UNDP, [4], leaders from 193 countries of the world came together in a forum in the year
2015
to face the supposed realities of the future.
Furthermore, what they saw was overwhelming. Starvations. Dry spell. Wars. Diseases. Destitution.
Not
simply in some faraway place, but rather in their own urban communities and towns and towns. They
knew
things didn't need to be like this. They knew we had enough nourishment to sustain the world, yet
that it
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wasn't getting shared. They knew there were pharmaceuticals for HIV and different illnesses, yet they
cost
a considerable measure. They knew that seismic tremors and surges were inescapable, yet that the
high
passing tolls were most certainly not. They additionally realized that billions of individuals overall
shared
their expectation for a better future. So, the various representatives from these nations arranged and
eventually came to a consensus of what is called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This
arrangement of 17 objectives envisions a future only 15 years off that would be freed of neediness
and
yearning, and safe from the most exceedingly terrible impacts of environmental change. It's a goal-
oriented
arrangement. Be that as it may, plentiful confirmation we can succeed. In the previous 15 years, the
worldwide group cut outrageous neediness down the middle. Presently we can complete the activity.
The
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is one of the main associations attempting to satisfy
the
SDGs by the year 2030. The realistic achievement of the SDGs will not just be as a dream of the night
nor
a rocket science, but it will require a very robust contribution from various individuals, groups,
organization
(both private and non-private), A consolidate effort from almost 170 nations and regions will
earnestly
enable countries to make the Goals a reality. The requirement of the conscious efforts from the
various
nations of the earth is to attain and achieve progressive improvement from the previously known
MDGs to
the presently known SDGs. These goals as stipulated by UNDP, [4] in Hwang & Jiwon, [2] are listed
thus;
End poverty in the entirety
Termination of hunger, accomplish sustenance security, progressed nourishment, and
economical horticulture
Guarantee sound lives and advance prosperity for all at all ages
To assure evenhanded and comprehensive quality training what's more, advance deeprooted learning
opportunities for all
Achieve voluptuous orientation equity and enable ladies.
Guarantee maintainable and accessibility of water and effective sanitation for all.
Guarantee sufficient access to reasonable, dependable, maintainable vitality for
everyone
Advance maintained, comprehensive and reasonable economic development, profitable
and full. business, also, not too bad work for all
Construct versatile framework, improved industrialization, and cultivate development
Decrease imbalance amongst nations and within nations
Make urban communities and human settlements comprehensive, strong, safe, feasible.
Guarantee reasonable utilization and creation designs
Make critical move to combat change in the environmental and effects (observing
understandings made by UNFCCC)
Ration and economically make use of the seas, marine and oceans assets for reasonable
developmental progress.
Ensure, reestablish, advance manageable utilization of earthbound biological systems,
economically manage woodlands, battle desertification, turn around arrive corruption,
and put an end to biodiversity disaster
Peace promotion and good social orders for feasible advancement, give room for equity
for all, assemble viable, responsible, comprehensive establishments at all levels
Fortify the approaches for execution and reintroduce the worldwide organization for
maintainable advancement
2.2 Justification of Problem
Dhahri and Omri, [17] stated that a causality test that was carried out affirmed the connections
among
business enterprise and these three dimensions of the SDGs in both small and large. It was basically
found
that business in these nations emphatically adds to the financial and social measurements of SDGs,
but had
limitations through negative commitment to the ecological measurement.
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Blum et al., [18] discussed the Concept of Sustainable Chemistry and the role it plays in assisting all
onscreen characters with identifying doable specialized choices in combination and generation with
less
unsafe synthetic substances by considering maintainability criteria in zones past the extent of sound
administration of synthetic concoctions, as for example asset and vitality productivity, the utilization
of
inexhaustible feedstock, and the effect on groups of the creation of synthetic concoctions. Along
these lines,
in every single significant angle towards sustainable development. Bevan et al., [19], represent 0.98
on
percentage of development associations in the Australia and 0.80 0n percentage of development yield
in
the UK. In this manner in the direct of development business, they have high effect to build social
obligation
Upstill. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that there are confirmations to help the execution of the
Cooperate
Social Responsibilities in SME for the development business the level of usage is still very low.
Barthorpe
said that in the UK setting, there were numerous SME that do not have remorse to insert or formalize
CSR
into their standard business exercises. Regularly, the SME take part in CSR as occasional accomplices
to
the bigger development associations in the development store network. The expansive development
associations have colossal duty in such manner to support, guide and give assets to the SME to
expand their
level of CSR Loosemore, [20]. It was expressed that the very known SDGs are specifically significant to
social responsibility in business. Suitable inspiration ought to be given to the SME to expand CSR
hones.
Elimination of poverty is the first, basic target of sustainable development objectives Ul et al., [6].
Supportable improvement is a vital issue for the provincial territories of Pakistan for the most part
connected
with expectations for everyday comforts, horticulture and nonagricultural resources, and condition
pointers.
The measurements of hardship have been distinguished by analyzing the accompanying components:
farming and nonagricultural resources, lodging, instruction, vitality sanitation, access to clean
drinkable
water. The examination reports that 0.44 on percentage of family units in provincial Pakistan are
inhabiting
the poorest and poor levels, persevering through an absence of unadulterated drinking water,
insufficient
sanitation offices, poor lodging conditions, dirtied vitality sources, and privation of financial assets.
The
locale level investigation exhibits that the rustic populaces of Hyderabad. In this manner, to
accomplish
reasonable advancement and destitution decrease, extra subsidizes from the elected, common, and
nearby
governments ought to be distributed for social welfare, training, sanitation, water supply, and
horticulture
improvement in country zones of Pakistan.
3. Summary of Some Method in Carrying Out Research to Attain the SDGS
This study basically focused on the pedigree of the Sustainable Development Goals with a germane
route
from the critical analogy of the antecedent of the contributions that has been made by several
researches
though various studies. Amongst many other things, this study further espouses the state on the
attainment
of the Sustainable Development Goals thus far, why it has not fully succeeded, and those that have
played
active roles till date.
This paper made use of secondary information’s from various articles cut across various fields but
targeted
towards the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The benefit of utilizing sets of
secondary data or information is that it has been created by groups of master scientists, regularly with
vast
spending plans what's more, broad assets path past the methods for a solitary understudy, so it
removes the
requirement for tedious hands on work. Information that has been gathered over an extensive stretch
of time
will give the chance to complete a longitudinal report (following the improvements after some time),
unthinkable to do with information gathered in short tasks Nicholas, [21]. For the scope of the study,
the
role of research in the attainment of the SDGs is the primary focus. To clearly juxtapose the
significance of
research in our contemporary world as a tool to positively catalyze the achievement of the clearly
defined
2030 agenda of the United Nations.
3.1 The Concept of Research
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Research has been defined by various scholars and authors in series of correspondence, proceedings,
publications, research extract and the likes. Amongst others are the few definitions considered for the
purpose of this study. Iowa, [22] defined research from a logical point of view a deliberate
examination,
advancement in research, assessment, poised to create a generalizable fact or information. Research
also
implies a look for actualities – answers to inquiries and Solutions to Issues. It is a Purposive
examination.
It is a "Sorted out request" (It looks to discover clarifications to unexplained marvel, to order the
dubious
suggestions and to revise the misconstrued realities). Exercises which meet this definition constitute
explore
for motivations behind this strategy. Kothari, [23]
3.2 Types of Research
According to the indications from the study done by Kothari, [23] and the basic types of research are
listed
thus;
Descriptive: it incorporates reviews and actuality discovering inquiries of different
types. Real reason for engaging examination is depiction of conditions of issues as it is
at present.
Applied: it is a kind of research that goes for locating a solution for prompt issues
confronting a general public or industry
Quantitative: It depends on amount estimation o or on the other hand sum. It is
appropriate to marvels that can be communicated as far as amount
Qualitative: it is worried about subjective marvel, i.e., wonders identifying with or
including quality or kind
Conceptual: is the kind of research that is identified with some abstract idea(s) answers
hypothesis. It is for the most part utilized by rationalists and scholars to grow new ideas
or to reinterpret existing ones.
Empirical Research: it depends on understanding or perception alone, often without due
reverence for context and hypothesis. It is information-based research, concocting
conclusions which are equipped for being checked by perception or investigation.
3.3 Research Approaches
Kothari, [23], highlighted two approaches to research. These approaches are discussed below;
Qualitative Approach; it is fully focused on the opinion and attitude assessment. The
impression and insight of the researcher is a key factor in the kind of research approach.
Quantitative Approach; it is focused on generating quantifiable data that can be analyzed
quantitatively in a seemly rigid and formal way or fashion
3.4 General Significance of Research
Research assumes a key part in forming the world. Through research, we pick up a superior
comprehension
of the present most squeezing and complex social and logical issues for example, social decent
variety,
human rights, malady avoidance, and environmental change. Leaders, general society, and even
analysts
themselves, must believe in how research is directed, what's more, the resulting discoveries. The
advantages
of the examination undertaking can't be acknowledged unless the information created is both precise
and
dependable. Opportunity, [25]
Research has its unique significance in solving several operational and planning related problems of
business and industry. Kothari, [23]
3.5 Research and the Sustainable Development Goals
The importance of research in various fields of human endeavor cannot be over emphasized as it
relates
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with literarily all that pertains to man and the entire makeup of his existence. At earlier stated, that
applied
research is one of the types of research that majorly focuses on solving practical real-life problems of
different scenarios in the society, organizations, industries, various locality and the likes. Since the
sustainable development goals of the United Nation it targeted towards making the world a very
conducive
and suitable place for humanity to stay in. This means that the seventeen (17) SDGs were born out of
a
passion to solve the generic problems of humanity. Hence, the role of research becomes extremely
germane
to positively catalyzing the processes and procedure required to attain the reality of it. The SDGs talks
about
the level of poverty, the standard of living the people, the ecosystem. All of these are the make ups of
the
human survival mission.
Research will aid the decision-making process of the policy makers at various cadre of the managerial
leadership of the SDGs all around the world where the goals intended for. The essence of research in
enhancing growth and development of any system or organization is considerably significant.
However,
the place of quality and good research is not to be compromised because good research work in any
sphere
of influence, area of specialization, field of endeavor, for any purpose in the regard of solving relevant
and
related problems is of utmost importance and significance. Hence, quality research work will birth
better
result and improved situation.
4. Conclusion
It was discovered during this study that research will forever be a very important ingredient of
development
and its significance will forever remain relevant for any system that want to grow and merge up with
her
counterparts across the world. Every improvement is traceable to research because there was a
problem and
the cause of the problem was consciously and effortful discovered, the required solution was
effectively
appropriated and the system eventually salvage and something new is being added to knowledge.
This is
traceable to research because that is all about research.
20.) ADDRESSING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
For years now, the semiconductor manufacturing industry has been stuck with a bad reputation as
one of the biggest contributors to environmental pollution.
Fabricating one small 2g microchip requires the use of 1.6 kilograms of petroleum, 32 kilograms of
water, 0.7 kilograms of elemental gases, and 72 grams of chemicals.
Multiply that by millions of chips made in just one factory over a year, and the result is vast amounts
of waste and toxic chemicals that are detrimental to the environment.
But one company in Taiwan is paving the way for change. King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC), one
of the world’s largest providers of testing services for semiconductor wafers, is going green in a big
way.
The goal? To remain an industry leader while building a sustainable enterprise.
And for the group, one thing is clear: building a green supply chain has to be more than just paying lip
service.
GREENING THE BUSINESS
Set up in 1987, KYEC has established itself as a well-reputed name in the global semiconductor
industry. It generated revenues of over US$400 billion (€352 billion) in 2017.
King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC)
It is best known for applying its core technologies to areas such as chip testing services for
smartphones, automotive CIS components, 5G base stations, Bitcoin, and microcontrollers. However,
in recent years it has also upped its ante as a sustainable and responsible business.
The group has already incorporated several clean and environmentally-friendly concepts into its
corporate culture.
For instance, while world powers are aiming to ban the use of the highly environment-damaging lead
acid batteries in the next few years, KYEC has already done away with such batteries altogether, said
the group’s Senior Vice President K.K. Lee.
“Our factory has over a thousand sets of equipment and more than 100 uninterrupted power supply
systems — which ran on batteries,” explained Lee
“Due to the high pollution and risk levels of lead acid batteries, we started to phase out lead acid
batteries three years ago, and now our operations run completely on lithium batteries. Besides being
an eco-friendly measure, it also ensures a safer work environment for employees.”
Most semiconductor firms would shy away from such investments as they typically involve huge costs
and a long return on investment cycle.
In 2017, the company also rolled out a total of 30 energy-saving measures, which led to 3,216 kWh of
energy savings and reduced carbon emissions by 16,757 tonnes — the equivalent of 64 times the
annual carbon absorption amount of Taipei’s Daan Forest Park.
The company, as a result, achieved a respectable waste recycling rate of 68 percent in 2017. It aims to
raise this figure to 80 percent by 2020.
Lee noted that because the semiconductor industry consumes such high levels of energy, it is critical
that KYEC is “faster than anyone else in implementing energy-saving measures, be it in terms of the
materials we use or in our work environment”.
STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME
For KYEC, going green spells a competitive advantage that has become absolutely necessary in today’s
context.
“A corporation aiming to be a successful hundred-year-old enterprise should not just be profit-driven.
If we fail to consider sustainability, we will be out of the game in no time,” said Lee.
Every year, the company voluntarily participates in the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ green power
purchase program, which is aimed at slashing carbon emissions and boosting a national fund that
promotes the development of sustainable energy projects.
KYEC’s large-scale primary production factories and equipment in the county of Miaoli have also been
awarded green building status and the government-issued green factory label.
Its journey in environmental sustainability is an ongoing one.
The company has also decided to extend the green philosophy into its transportation needs by
tapping on DHL’s GoGreen Carbon Neutral Service, which helps firms combat climate change by
offsetting emissions from their shipments.
For every shipment under this service, DHL makes a corresponding contribution to a climate
protection project through the purchase of carbon credits from verified projects, neutralizing the
shipment’s carbon emissions.
“We are really looking forward to this and we hope to be the industry leader for Taiwanese
companies in terms of urging them to engage in some introspection and review their industry supply
chain,” added Lee. “In doing so, we could lower carbon emissions and create a sustainable earth.”
Clearly, KYEC’s route down the sustainable path goes far beyond just carving out a competitive edge
— it means creating a safer, cleaner, and better environment for all.

Local RRLS:

21.) Outsourcing in the IT industry: The case of the Philippines

Abstract

Outsourcing of labor, especially in area of the Information Technology (IT) sector, has grown rapidly in
recent years. This article further defines what is meant by outsourcing, and examines the
opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs to outsource in the Philippines. This emerging
economy has been cited as one of the most attractive destinations for outsourcing, despite the lack of
information. The article offers historical, business, and cultural insights and identifies strategies for
outsourcing success in the Philippine environment.

22.) Outsourcing Trends and Statistics for 2020 and Beyond

Outsourcing as an industry has been around for quite some time, as companies have always looked
for cost-efficient ways to manage certain business processes off-site. Among the most common
services outsourced are customer support, accounting, recruitment, manufacturing, and many more
technical roles that can be a time and resource obstacle for growing companies.

By taking these functions to a third-party service provider, you can focus on managing and optimizing
the core areas of your business. In addition to enhancing your concentration on internal
specialization, outsourcing can also be a great source of overhead reduction for your company.
Typically, outsourcing partners will provide offsite services at a lower cost than if you were to build an
internal team due to the varying economic benefits that come with an offshore workforce.

Because of the benefits of outsourcing, many companies are finding that it’s an attractive option that
allows their businesses to grow. In fact, 37% of small businesses currently outsource a business
process. Among this number, 24% choose to outsource primarily to increase efficiency, while 18% are
looking to receive assistance from an expert.

Whatever your business goal is, you need to be able to find the right partner, whether your
requirements are for customer service outsourcing, IT support outsourcing, or recruitment process
outsourcing. You’ll want a company that can provide you with quality services in a cost-effective
manner. This way, the results have a greater overall value on your business. In this infographic, we
compiled all the latest outsourcing data and statistics to help you make informed decisions about the
strategies that you’ll employ.

23.) Philippines: the top outsourcing destination

What is an outsourcing company? It is a company, which provides external resources that cater to
different needs of various businesses.

Why do companies use outsourcing when they can choose to maximize internal resources? When you
have a business with projects to finish and deadlines to meet but don’t have the time to do it, then
this is the time that you can hire an outsourcing service company. When you don’t have enough
resources to go through the process but still need efficient results, then you can find an outsource
service provider.
An outsourcing firm contracts work externally. In this setup, specific workloads of your business
operations are being done offsite. This ultimately gives you the advantage of having repetitive and
systematic work done outside the company’s premises.

When you decide to outsource, it is imperative that you understand what an outsourcing company’s
origin is and the different benefits it offers. You can have a better insight on what outsourcing services
impact is to your company’s efficiency.

Outsourcing in the Philippines: a brief history

When you talk about outsourcing and its history in the Philippines, Accenture will always come up.
Business Process Outsourcing or BPO in the country started from a single contract from the said
company.

Frank Holtz founded Accenture Global Center in 1992. It outsourced work in the country and offered
management consulting and professional services all over the world. It now has 50,000 employees in
the Philippines alone. Among the businesses that outsource, Accenture remains one of the top BPO
companies in the Philippines.

1. Cutting costsReducing costs is the most appealing reason why companies outsource. Operational
costs that are usually cut down include labor costs and overhead expenses. To put it in a more
straightforward perspective, when you outsource work, you don’t have to provide a workspace for
your employees anymore. This includes electricity, furniture, and equipment. These are can already
be indicated as part of their qualifications, or the outsourcing firms take care of it for you.

2. Decentralizing commandAlways checking your employee’s progress is time-consuming. You have to

give out instructions and see to it that they are carried out correctly. This is why companies offshore:
to delegate supervisory and managerial responsibilities.

3. Centralizing focusBusiness owners are now embracing reality. A company that outsources avoids
being consumed with repetitive tasks that can be easily handled by an outsource service company.

24.) 10 BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING TO THE PHILIPPINES

The outsourcing industry in Philippines is the economic lifeline for the entire South-east Asian country
consisting of more than 100 people from different ethnicities. The BPO companies in Philippines
employ more than 2 million people, and account for the biggest boost to Philippines economy along
with foreign exchange remittances. As a result, this tiny island nation is posing as a strong competitor
to established global BPO players such as India. In fact, many sub-industries such as the call center
industry have already taken over India, as Metro Manila moves up the ladder in many other sub
industries.

In the past decade itself, outsourcing to Philippines has seen a 30% growth as compared to the
previous year and the future looks extremely promising as Deloitte predicted that Philippines may
increase its share of the BPO pie to 20% of the entire global market generating more than $50 billion
in revenue! So, what makes outsourcing services to the Philippines a great deal for companies around
the world? Let's have a look.

The Top 10 Key Benefits of Outsourcing to Philippines:

Some of the hottest outsourcing markets in Philippines right now include call centers, SEO, IT Services,
Internet Marketing, and Virtual Staffing Solutions. In fact, one of the key advantage of outsourcing to
Philippines is that it is extremely small business friendly, as it costs as less as $2000 to operate a team
of employees. The industry right now is on the up and up and has a lot to offer in terms of reliability
and security when it comes to outsourcing to Philippines. Some of the key benefits include -

1. Great CostingWithout a doubt, one of the advantage of outsourcing to Philippines is the pricing
itself, which in turn is the biggest reason behind why companies outsource. Not only is the cost of
labor in Philippines almost half of that in the US or UK, but as a business owner, you save on other
tertiary costs such as paying for an office space, legal and HR costs, latest equipment, taxes, etc. more
often than not, business owners can save up to 60% in costs simply by outsourcing to Philippines.

2. Neutral LanguageCompared to India, Philippines has a considerable advantage when it comes to

language, as English is an official language in the Philippines which is used in conversing on a daily
basis. Therefore, the BPO industry is full of workers who can speak great English in accents very
similar to the US. This neutral accent and mode of speaking works great for voice-based services such
as call centers and virtual staffing. Broadcast based in US and UK also find it easier to work with
Philippines based service providers, as language never becomes a barrier.

3. Better Access to TalentWhile there is no dearth of talented individuals in countries such as India,
head-hunting and getting access to talented individuals definitely become a task. Compared to this, in
Philippines, companies can hire a skilled, ready, and willing workforce much more faster. A lot of it
has to do with the way the education system in Philippines closely follows that of the US, ensuring
you also know what the exact skill level of an outsourced employee is. According to an ASEAN Briefing
report generated recently, more than 450,000 students graduate from universities and institutes
every year. On top of that, the Philippines government sponsors various state-run courses in the
universities which facilitate BPO-industry relevant skill sets for interested students.

4. Young, Vibrant DemographicPhilippines has a very young population, with the average age in the
country being 23 years old. This demographic has grown up in a world with technology, and therefore
has an innate understanding of how technology can be leveraged for better business solutions. Many
of the youngsters also have access to top-level education preparing them for the BPO sector, thereby
facilitating their entry into the marketplace equipped with the right skillsets to succeed.

5. Reduced Legal Liabilities and Management IssuesOne of the unfortunate side-effects of running a
business is leaving your processes open to legal liabilities and frivolous lawsuits filed by in-house staff.
However when you outsource to Philippines you absolve yourself from all such troubles as all these
outsourcing companies are legally very strong so as to ensure their customer and client relations
remain perfect. They also support you by allowing access to a strong HR and management team who
can help you easily set up and assign training projects, task allocation, tax returns, etc. This ensures
that at all time you can focus on your business.

6. Cultural InfluencePhilippines is one of the very few Asian countries which has a healthy mix of both
South-East Asian and Western influences. A lot of it has to do with the fact that Philippines was a
former colony for Spain, Mexico, and the US at various points in its history. Therefore, the people of
Philippines have grown up watching Western media and have a lot of similarities with their culture.
US pop culture is also extremely well-received in the Philippines, and while it may be a small factor in
the overall scheme of things, the truth is that this cultural similarity plays a big role in ensuring
outsourcing works right out of the box when you work with a service provider based out of
Philippines.

7. Data Privacy and SecurityThe Philippines government has been extremely crucial in ensuring that
the BPO industry in Philippines is able to thrive and grow by ensuring favorable legislations and laws
are passed to facilitate the same. Since outsourcing operations usually include the sharing of
confidential data, the data privacy act passed by the Philippines government in 2012 ensure the
privacy standards are up to international standards. According to this act, there are strict regulations
in place to protect valuable confidential data from unauthorized access as a result of which industries
such as Healthcare are now looking at Philippines as a viable outsourcing destination.

8. Strong Government RegulationsThe BPO industry is a strong economic pillar in Philippines as we

established before, and as a result the Philippine government has done a great job of recognizing the
potential of BPO industry and facilitating its growth by enabling both infrastructure and policy
development. This includes partnering with universities to create BPO specific curriculum, setting up
TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) which helped in funding call center
training centers and has a unique voucher system, tax incentives and SOPs to support foreign
investment, and the creation of the National information and communication technology council to
further the growth of the industry.

9. High-quality DeliverablesAccording to many independent research publishers, the BPO industry in

Philippines regularly ranks at the top of service delivery quality surveys conducted amongst clients
from across the world. Performance efficiency is central to ensuring the country was able to touch 1
million employed BPO workers in a span of 4 years.

10. Better Quality of LifeCompared to India, Filipinos have better access to amenities and an overall
better quality of life when they begin working in the BPO sector. Thanks to the proliferation of the
industry, people do not need to go out of their own country in search of jobs, ensuring they live
together with their families and close to friends. As a result, over the years the quality of life for an
average Filipino has drastically improved, which in turn has spilled over into the local economy in a big
way.

25.) “The Future of Business: Sustainability. Development. Impact.”,

https://www.pwc.com › publications

A beneficial business isn't really acceptable business on the off chance that it doesn't prompt "great"
development, which is sustainable and empathetic. Environmental change, ecological harm, pay
disparity, draining assets, wasteful creation, and disregard – these are some of the serious issues that
we, as business leaders, need to address.

It is comforting that the number of CEOs who use sustainable practices in their companies is growing.
While most are still using the traditional practices related to energy use and recycling, a good number
have plans of shifting to a circular business model. While incorporating sustainability in one’s business
is not that easy, our CEOs agree that our country’s top
problems such as rapid urbanization, environmental issues, and ecosystem degradation should push
the companies to adopt sustainable practices.

26.) Sustainability- SAMSUNG AUSTIN SEMICONDUCTOR

https://www.samsung.com › Approach

Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s sustainability philosophy is to create the harmonious co-existence of

people, society, environment, and compliance. We are committed to making superior products that
contribute to a better global society.

27.) An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach in the selection of sustainable manufacturing
initiatives: a case in a semiconductor manufacturing firm in the Philippines.

Lanndon Ocampo, Eppie Clark

International Journal of the Analytic Hierarchy Process 7 (1), 32-49, 2015

This paper proposes an evaluation framework of sustainable manufacturing (SM) initiatives using the
hierarchical structure of sustainability indicators set adopted by the US National Institute of Standards
and Technology (US NIST) in the context of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Evaluating SM
initiatives developed by manufacturing firms is crucial for resource allocation, and ensuring that
investments enhance the sustainability performance of the firm. This evaluation is a challenge
because of the multi-criteria nature of the problem and the presence of subjective criteria for which
little or no information on their measurement systems is available. Thus, this study is appropriate due
to the following reasons:(1) US NIST provides a comprehensive evaluation model of sustainability with
its four-level hierarchy that provides evidence of depth and details of sustainability evaluation, and (2)
AHP has the capability to handle multi-level decision-making structure with the use of expert
judgments in a pairwise comparison process. A case study of a semiconductor manufacturing firm is
presented to illustrate the proposed evaluation framework. Results show that firms must strengthen
their financial base through programs that improve efficiency, quality and productivity before carrying
out initiatives that address the environment and the immediate community. This work presents a
framework that could guide decision-makers, in a way that is simple and comprehensive in their
attempt to promote sustainability.

28.) A Look at the Current Philippine Electronics Manufacturing Landscape

https://www.eetasia.com/a-look-at-the-current-philippine-electronics-manufacturing-landscape-part-
1/

The semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industry is the biggest economic growth driver in
the Philippines. Mainly composed of semiconductor manufacturing services (73%) and electronics
manufacturing services (EMS) firms (27%), the industry employs around 3.2 million direct and indirect
workers. In 2018, the segment accounted for about $37.57 billion of commodity exports—
representing more than half or about 55.67% of the country’s total exports—up by 2.83% from 2017
figures, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The Philippines has several big, multinational and Filipino companies, who have significant design as
well as R&D activities with substantial investments and have the critical mass of engineers and
designers in the Philippines.