Outsourcing Development in Russia: Factors Affecting the Location of Shared Service Centers
Russian companies have actively used the transfer of support functions to outsourcing in recent decades, which allows them to increase the efficiency of their activities and focus on the main business areas. For this purpose, shared service centers are created, which can take various forms – from an internal division to a branch or subsidiary of the company. When deciding to outsource functions, one of the key issues is the choice of the shared service centers’ locations. The purpose of the study was to review the existing approaches to determining the factors that influence the choice of the shared service centers' location, as well as to assess the degree of influence of such factors based on statistical data. Using the method of ordinal logistic regression, a direct statistically significant dependence was revealed between the rating of the socio-economic situation of the region, the number and rating of universities, and the number of shared service centers in the region. The inverse dependence between the unemployment rate in the region and the number of shared service centers is also established, as well as the absence of the influence of the average wage level on the territorial location of shared service centers. The study shows that one of the significant factors influencing the choice of the shared service center location in Russia is the proximity to the main production. This is due to the need to preserve jobs in single-industry towns, the low mobility of the population, and the insufficient level of remote service technologies. The article outlines the directions of development that allow strengthening the role of regions in the creation of shared service centers in the future. The results of the study can be used by companies when analyzing the activities of existing or creating new shared service centers, as well as by authorities when considering regional development issues.