International Sourcing

The publication discusses the results of a survey of international sourcing conducted in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Sourcing is the transfer of some or all activities of a company to another country, for example moving production processes to a low-wage country or outsourcing IT activities. The report examines the extent of this transferral and which activities are transferred. The reasons companies give for sourcing, impediments, effects and countries involved are also dealt with.

The publication - a co-production of the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries - makes it possible to compare the Netherlands with similar countries for this aspect of economic globalisation. The figures are taken from Eurostat’s International Sourcing survey that was held on a voluntary basis in 14 EU-countries in 2007.