Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a contemporary phenomenon that has gained significant traction in recent years. Like other forms of outsourcing, BPO is both beneficial and risky. While extant research has examined the risks in outsourcing for clients, a limited insight exists on the risks associated with BPO for vendors. We examine the contexts in which the value proposition of BPO varies for vendor firms based on the risks associated with the contract. The risk in this context is posited to vary based on the type of task outsourced, the outsourcing motivation of the client and the duration of the contract. Using a sample of 231 BPO announcements over a thirteen-year period, we test our hypotheses using an event study. We find that BPO creates significant value gains for vendor firms, particularly for knowledge intensive processes. In addition, vendors lost value when they were sought out to develop specific capabilities for the clients that involved knowledge intensive processes. While vendors benefited from longer duration contracts, these benefits were not found to significantly vary across the different types of tasks outsourced.

业务流程外包（BPO）是一种当代现象，近年来受到了极大的关注。与其他形式的外包一样，业务流程外包既有利又有风险。尽管现有的研究已经检查了为客户进行外包的风险，但对于与BPO有关的供应商所面临的风险却知之甚少。我们根据合同风险来研究卖方公司BPO的价值主张有所不同的情况。在这种情况下，风险可能因外包任务的类型，客户的外包动机和合同期限而异。我们使用13年间231个BPO公告的样本，通过事件研究检验了我们的假设。我们发现BPO为卖方公司创造了巨大的价值增长，特别是对于知识密集型流程。此外，供应商在寻求为涉及知识密集型流程的客户开发特定功能时失去了价值。尽管供应商从更长的合同中受益，但是在外包的不同类型的任务中，这些收益并没有显着不同。