PurposeWhile the implications of outsourcing have been extensively studied from the point of view of the developed country multinational corporation (MNC) and its home economy, far less attention has been paid to the developing country firm (DCF) participating in the outsourcing collaboration. This article aims at presenting, evaluating, and synthesizing a number of theoretical contributions that may help build an agenda for future research on outsourcing from a DCF perspective.Design/methodology/approachThrough a review of the extant theoretical literature on outsourcing, the article seeks to explicate a DCF perspective on outsourcing.FindingsThe article argues that although several theoretical domains indirectly shed light on outsourcing from a DCF perspective, they are typically approaching the issue from a macro (country) and meso (industry) level perspective and rarely explicitly apply a micro (firm) level perspective. Moreover, they tend to view DCF strategy in outsourcing collaborations as functions of MNCs' strategies, not as strategies in their own right. In order to fill this apparent lacuna in the outsourcing literature, the article reviews a number of theories that may help building a research agenda on outsourcing from a developing country perspective.Originality/valueThe article contributes to the outsourcing literature by explicating a DCF theoretical perspective on outsourcing.

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Business studies and development studies have evolved relatively independent of each other -business studies occupied with profit maximizing strategies of entrepreneurs and firms, and development studies with economic, social and political development strategies of countries and regions. In recent years, the interest of both fields of academic enquiry has increasingly been directed toward issues related to firms and entrepreneurship in developing countries. However, in dealing with these issues, the two fields have, only to a limited degree, drawn on each other's insights. The article argues that without an enhanced conversation between the two fields in the era of globalization, the analytical and predictive power of both may be seriously impaired. The article moves on to identify areas, where there is substantial potential for cross-fertilization between the two fields.Les recherches dans le domaine du management et des e´tudes du de´veloppement ont e´volue´re-lativement inde´pendamment les unes des autres, la premie`re s'inte´ressant aux strate´gies permettant aux entreprises de maximiser leurs profits, les secondes s'interrogeant plutoˆt sur les strate´gies de de´veloppement e´conomique, social et politique des pays et des re´gions. Depuis quelques anne´es, ces deux domaines de recherche se penchent sur des questions lie´es aux firmes et a´l'entreprenariat dans les pays en voie de de´veloppement, mais les e´changes et enrichissements mutuels entre les deux spe´cialite´s sont limite´s. Cet article a pour but de montrer que si le dialogue entre ces deux disciplines ne se de´veloppe pas, leur capacite´analytique et de pre´vision risque, a´l'e`re de la mondialisation, d'eˆtre se´rieusement compromise. Ce travail s'attache a´identifier les champs de recherche au sein desquels des enrichissements mutuels pourraient eˆtre favorise´s.

The evaluation of foreign aid is thoroughly integrated into the work of aid agencies. It is argued that evaluations contribute to organizational learning and are used to support change in policies and operations. How the use of evaluation is understood, however, depends on the organization perspective applied. Various organization perspectives are relevant. This article discusses the different approaches and looks at organizational practices and a number of case studies to address the question of how evaluation is used. The findings suggest that the use of evaluation for learning in agencies may be less important than other inputs, and evaluation results only partly support policy and operational changes. One single perspective on an organization cannot explain its evaluation processes and use. Different elements of the evaluation appear to be dominated by specific organization perspectives.