OFFSHORING CALL CENTERS FOR EMERGING MARKETS: findings from Brazil

Abstract

Offshoring production and services is changing business models in many industries. Manymanufacturing sectors and more recently service sectors are moving their plants orinstallations abroad, to affiliates or third-party companies in developing countries. Thismovement is also happening in the call center industry since India is the destination for manycall centers, Brazil as well as presents good perspectives based on its multicultural society andthe stage of the Brazilian call center industry. To understand and identify the potentialcapabilities and opportunities in this industry, a survey was carried out sampling 114 callcenters located in Brazil. The main data shows the competitiveness of Brazil along with otheremerging countries. Offshoring call centers are on the way up and Brazil has the capability tobe a great player as the presented cases show. Results obtained from the survey demonstratethat Brazilian call centers are in the initial stage of internationalization, but that can changevery quickly because the main infrastructure and human resources already exist and can bereadied based on the technologies and competencies to serve international markets.

Keywords

• Offshoring
• Call Centers
• Business
• Internationalization