HR Outsourcing Literature Review: Decisions, Outcome and Its Future
Research Directions
Abstract
This study aims to systematically synthesize more than 20 years of human
resource outsourcing (HRO) studies in a way that is meaningful, concise
and, useful to HRO researchers and practitioners. Using
grounded coding technique blended with integrative literature review,
empirical papers published from 1997 to 2018 are examined. This is the
first HRO literature review using such techniques to answer three key
research questions: What has the existing empirical academic literature
revealed about the determinants of HRO decisions and outcomes? What are
the key issues emerged from the literature? What are the gaps in
knowledge which warrant future HRO research? Other than providing a
comprehensive insight into an emerging research area, this review also
contributes to laying an important foundation for the initial
descriptive HRO theory development. 36 dependent variables and 99
independent variables over 449 relationships were coded.