A view from the street: an exploratory study of consumer attitudes toward offshoring of professional services in the United States

Abstract

Purpose – The study aims to examine consumer attitudes toward offshore-outsourcing of professional services in the USA. It focuses on the services of accountants, attorneys and doctors to provide a framework for discussing policy and marketing implications. Design/methodology/approach – The study reviews a review of the literature on consumer decision-making under uncertainty and attitude formation, and a focus group study to examine consumers’ attitudes toward offshore-outsourcing of professional services. Findings – Contrary to reports in the popular press, this paper suggests that consumers do not have a generalized negative attitude toward offshore-outsourcing of all forms of professional services. While consumers do not mind offshore-outsourcings of the services of medical doctors and attorneys, they seem to be concerned about offshore-outsourcings of accounting or financial services. These results suggest that persons engaged in offshore-outsourcings of tax and other related services must re-strategize. Research limitations/implications – While the results of this study offer a window into the US consumers’ feelings about offshore-outsourcings of professional services, the results lack generalizability, as they are based on an exploratory study. Practical implications – Even though outsourcing has received a lot of media attention and some limited attention from academics, no study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has specifically investigated US consumers’ attitudes toward offshore-outsourcings of professional services. Given the fact that the trend is growing instead of abating, a study, such as the current one, that investigates how consumers feel about the practice is not only timely but will also provide valuable information to managers for strategy reformulation and to lawmakers for regulation purposes. Originality/value – This paper, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first to specifically examine consumer attitude toward offshoring of the basic professional services – the services of doctors, accountants and attorneys.