OUTSOURCING PATHS OF ACCOUNTING BY...

UNIVERSITEIT GENT

FACULTEIT ECONOMIE EN BEDRIJFSKUNDE

ACADEMIEJAAR 2008 – 2009

OUTSOURCING PATHS OF ACCOUNTING BY SMEs

Masterproef voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van

Master in de Toegepaste Economische Wetenschappen

Eline De Wilde en Marieke Meulewaeter

onder leiding van

Prof. dr. Everaert

Ondergetekenden, Eline De Wilde en Marieke Meulewaeter, verklaren dat de inhoud van deze

masterproef mag geraadpleegd en/of gereproduceerd worden, mits bronvermelding.

Eline De Wilde

Marieke Meulewaeter

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs I

Acknowledgements

First and foremost we would like to thank Prof Dr Patricia Everaert. We are very grateful for her

readiness to receive us at all times and for her expertise in giving us guidance and professional

advice.

We would like to thank Mr Yvan De Maesschalck, Master in Literature, and Jan Watté, an

Irishman, for reading and correcting our thesis.

We would also like to thank all the people prepared to participate in our interviews. In particular

we would like to thank Mr Johan Verbeken (Verbitek), Mrs Carolien Danckaert (Pauwels

Consulting), Mrs Sonja Demeyer (Accountemps), Mrs Elise Beerens (Securex), Mrs Sabine

Janssens (Markomo) and Mrs Gudrun Phijs (CIACFleet). We are equally thankful to all

participants who filled in our questionnaire.

Last but not least we wish to thank our parents, family and friends for giving us their support and

for stimulating us throughout the months we spent writing this paper.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs II

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... I

Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... II

Used Abbreviations ................................................................................................... IV

List of Figures ............................................................................................................. V

List of Tables ............................................................................................................... V

List of Appendixes ...................................................................................................... V

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1

2. Literature review ..................................................................................................... 3

2.1. Outsourcing ...................................................................................................... 3

2.2. Extent of Outsourcing in Accounting, HR, IT and Fleet Management ........... 4

2.2.1. Outsourcing of Accounting ................................................................... 4

2.2.2. Outsourcing of Information Technology ............................................... 5

2.2.3. Outsourcing of Human Resources Management ................................... 6

2.2.4. Outsourcing of Fleet Management ........................................................ 7

2.3. Interdependency ............................................................................................... 8

2.4. Determinants to explain Outsourcing .............................................................. 9

3. Methodology ......................................................................................................... 13

3.1. Research design .............................................................................................. 13

3.2. Data collection ............................................................................................... 14

3.2.1. Non-response bias ............................................................................... 15

3.3. Variable Measures and Reliability ................................................................. 15

3.3.1. Measurement of Dependent Variables ................................................ 15

3.3.2. Measurement of Independent Variables .............................................. 16

3.3.3. Measurement of Control Variables ..................................................... 17

3.3.4. Model specification ............................................................................. 18

4. Results ................................................................................................................... 19

4.1. Descriptive statistics ...................................................................................... 19

4.2. Outsourcing interdependency ........................................................................ 21

4.3. Relationship outsourcing intensity and the personal

characteristics of the owner-manager ............................................................ 22

4.3.1. Accounting .......................................................................................... 22

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs III

4.3.2. IT ......................................................................................................... 22

4.3.3. HR ...................................................................................................... 23

4.3.4. Fleet Management ............................................................................... 23

5. Discussion ............................................................................................................. 24

6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 27

References .................................................................................................................. VI

Figures ..................................................................................................................... VIII

Figure 1 – Outsourcing intensities of supporting tasks ............................................... IX

Tables ........................................................................................................................... X

Table 1 – Accounting tasks ......................................................................................... XI

Table 2 – IT tasks ........................................................................................................ XI

Table 3 – HR Tasks ..................................................................................................... XI

Table 4 – Fleet Management tasks ............................................................................. XII

Table 5 – Characteristics of the owner-manager ........................................................ XII

Table 6 – Non-response bias ...................................................................................... XII

Table 7 – Multi-item variable measurement ............................................................ XIII

Table 8 – Descriptive statistics ................................................................................. XIV

Table 9 – Independent t test for dummy variables ................................................... XVI

Table 10 – Correlation Matrix (2008) ..................................................................... XVII

Table 11 – Correlation Matrix (2007) ................................................................... XVIII

Table 12 – Pearson Correlation Coefficients for the outsourcing intensities ........... XIX

Table 13 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Accounting .................. XX

Table 14 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of IT ................................ XXI

Table 15 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of HR ............................. XXII

Table 16 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Fleet Management ... XXIII

Table 17 – Overview findings third research question ......................................... XXIII

Appendixes ........................................................................................................... XXIV

Appendix 1 – Interviews ........................................................................................ XXV

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire ....................................................................................... XL

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs IV

Used Abbreviations

HR: Human Resources

IT: Information Technology

KSA: Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

SME: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

TCE: Transaction Cost Economics

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs V

List of Figures

Figure 1 – Outsourcing intensities of supporting tasks ............................................... IX

List of Tables

Table 1 – Accounting tasks ......................................................................................... XI

Table 2 – IT tasks ........................................................................................................ XI

Table 3 – HR Tasks ..................................................................................................... XI

Table 4 – Fleet Management tasks ............................................................................. XII

Table 5 – Characteristics of the owner-manager ........................................................ XII

Table 6 – Non-response bias ...................................................................................... XII

Table 7 - Multi-item variable measurement ............................................................. XIII

Table 8 - Descriptive statistics ................................................................................. XIV

Table 9 – Independent t test for dummy variables ................................................... XVI

Table 10 – Correlation Matrix (2008) ..................................................................... XVII

Table 11 – Correlation Matrix (2007) ................................................................... XVIII

Table 12 – Pearson Correlations Coefficients for the outsourcing intensities ......... XIX

Table 13 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Accounting .................. XX

Table 14 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of IT ................................ XXI

Table 15 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of HR ............................. XXII

Table 16 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Fleet Management ... XXIII

Table 17 – Overview findings third research question ......................................... XXIII

List of Appendixes

Appendix 1 – Interviews ........................................................................................ XXV

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire ....................................................................................... XL

OUTSOURCING PATHS

OF ACCOUNTING BY

SMEs

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs 1

1. Introduction

In this paper we will study outsourcing of staff functions by small and medium-sized enterprises

(SMEs) in Belgium. Nowadays many organizations realize that, to remain competitive, carrying

out their core activities flawlessly is of paramount importance. As a consequence, they refer to

external specialists to manage their non-core activities (staff functions). This current trend is

endorsed by The European Outsourcing Survey 2008 of Ernst & Young. They examined 600

European firms across France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium. About 70% of the

respondents outsource at least one of the staff functions. Belgian firms lead the field by 81%.

Also the number of activities (5.3) Belgian firms outsource is higher than the European average

(4.1). We can consequently conclude that outsourcing is an important Belgian phenomenon. In

addition, this survey investigates which activities are mostly outsourced. The supporting

functions to be discussed in this paper are the third (information technology (IT)), fourth (human

resources (HR)) and fifth (accounting and finance) most frequently outsourced activities1.

Although the survey of Ernst & Young only covers larger firms, we believe this trend also arises

in SMEs. One of the outstanding characteristics of SMEs is resource poverty. To cope with this

problem, special management tools are at their disposal (Welsh and White, 1981). These tools

can enable SMEs to exploit their scarce resources. We believe outsourcing is one of those.

Our research covers small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium with an average number

of employees between 20 and 250. SMEs are the engine of the Belgian economy2. Although

most of the organizations in Belgium have less than 20 employees we will exclude these

enterprises in our survey. Those micro-enterprises are not relevant for our research since they

generally have no other choice than to outsource their supporting functions. This would preclude

us from finding intensity in the level of outsourcing.

The purpose of this study is to gain a better insight into outsourcing of following four

different functional areas: accounting, information technology (IT), human resources

management (HR) and fleet management. These activities are subject to our first research

question “Which supporting activities are outsourced by SMEs?”. Whereas many authors

conducted scientific research on these topics separately, we combine them to investigate the

interdependency between the outsourcing intensities. This results in our second research

question: “Is there a dependency between the outsourcing of accounting tasks?”. The third

1 The first and second most frequently outsourced areas are “maintenance functions” and “distribution, logistics and transport”, but they are not relevant for our research. These tasks only take place in production firms. 2 More than 99% of the Belgian companies have less than 200 employees. (source: UNIZO-CofaceEuroDB)


research question will lead us to investigate whether the personality characteristics of the owner-

manager influence the decision to outsource the four functional areas.

To answer these research questions, we first conducted six exploratory interviews with

organizations that provide HR, IT or fleet management services to SMEs. Subsequently, in order

to obtain data to test the hypotheses concerning these research questions, a questionnaire was

sent to 1999 SMEs in Belgium.

We would like to contribute to the existing literature in three ways. Firstly, although SMEs

are important in our economy, only a few papers have analyzed outsourcing in SMEs (e.g.

Delmotte and Sels, 2008; Everaert, Sarens and Rommel, 2007). We extend this literature by

focusing on SMEs in Belgium. Secondly, we investigate the internal connection between the

outsourcing of four supporting functions. As far as we know, literature on the connections

between these different tasks is missing. Finally, while most of the literature deals with the risks,

benefits and success of outsourcing, we examine the relationship between the characteristics of

the owner-manager and the area(s) which are outsourced.

Our main conclusions can be summarized as follows. Firstly, IT turned out to be the most

attractive candidate for outsourcing, followed by accounting and HR. SMEs are not inclined to

outsource their fleet management. Secondly, with respect to the outsourcing interdependencies,

we find the outsourcing intensity of accounting to be positively correlated with outsourcing of IT

and negatively with outsourcing of fleet management. Thirdly, regarding the influence of the

owner-manager on outsourcing of accounting, IT and fleet management, we found respectively

two, three and one significant personality characteristic. Family businesses tend to outsource

accounting and IT and to insource their fleet management. Also age influences outsourcing of

accounting. Older owner-managers are more reluctant towards outsourcing. Furthermore,

experience and interest in IT leads to insourcing of IT.

In the following section, we will give an overview of the literature on outsourcing and the

development of the hypotheses. The third section describes the methodology used, followed by a

description of our results. Next, in section five, we will discuss these findings. Finally, we will

give some concluding remarks.


2. Literature Review

First, we will discuss the definition of outsourcing that is most relevant in this study.

Subsequently, we will cover the respective outsourcing literature about accounting, information

technology, human resources and fleet management. In addition, we identify subtasks for each

staff function. Thirdly, we will deal with the literature that focuses on the interdependency of

outsourcing of the four functional areas. Finally, we will discuss the literature on the

characteristics of top management teams. This last topic is of great interest for our third research

question.

2.1. Outsourcing

Outsourcing has been defined in many ways. Most of the definitions we find in IT and HR

literature. Somewhat exaggerated, it can be said that there are as many definitions of outsourcing

as there are authors who discuss outsourcing.

Gilley and Rasheed (2000) acknowledge this problem of the spectrum of definitions. They

propose that outsourcing may occur in two different ways. On the one hand, outsourcing may be

seen as the substitution of internal activities for external ones. This explanation is commonly

used in literature3. On the other hand, outsourcing may occur through abstention. In this case, a

company has never performed this activity inside but it does possess the ability. This

interpretation puts outsourcing in a different light, meaning that one may only speak of

outsourcing when an activity is performed by a service provider while the organization itself is

able to perform the activity internally. In what follows, we support the perspective on

outsourcing by Gilley and Rasheed (2000).

The latter also assume that an outsourcing strategy consists of two dimensions. The first

dimension is breadth. This dimension refers to the number of activities that a company

outsources. In this paper these are the number of subtasks of each activity (accounting, IT, HR

and fleet management). The second dimension is depth referring to the portion of one particular

activity that is outsourced. Concerning the latter dimension, we adapt the distinction that was

introduced by Lacity and Willcocks (1998):

3 e.g. Loh and Venkatraman (1992) define outsourcing as “the significant contribution by external vendors of the physical and/or human resources associated with the entire or specific components of the IT infrastructure in the user organization” (Loh and Venkatraman, 1992, pg 336); Gilley, McGee and Rasheed (2004b) define outsourcing as “Outsourcing can be described as the act of subcontracting out all or parts of the functions of a firm to an external party” (Gilley et al., 2004b, pg 118).


– Total outsourcing: More than 80% of the activity is outsourced.

– Total insourcing: Less than 20% of the activity is outsourced.

– Selective outsourcing: The activity is outsourced from 20% to 80%

2.2. Extent of Outsourcing in Accounting, IT, HR and Fleet Management

This section deals with the first research question. For each functional area we will first give an

overview of the literature available on the extent of outsourcing. Secondly, we will identify the

different tasks for each staff function.

Arbaugh (2003) examines the relationship between outsourcing practices, firm strategy and

growth in SMEs. This article distinguishes eleven activities. Five of these activities are also

examined in this paper: information systems, accounting and three subtasks from HR namely

training, payroll and recruitment and selection. Arbaugh (2003) reached the conclusion that 83%

of the SMEs contracted one or more activities out with wages administration as front runner.

More in general, human resources activities appear to be very attractive candidates for

outsourcing. Furthermore, they found that the possibility to focus on core competences causes

outsourcing of supporting functions.

2.2.1. Outsourcing of Accounting

From the 1970s until the 1990s outsourcing of accounting consisted mainly of outsourcing of

simple, repetitive processes e.g. payroll and transaction processing. However Anderson and Vita

(2006) recently have noticed a tendency to outsource all or a major part of the accounting tasks

to India, Singapore, Malaysia etc.

With regard to outsourcing of accounting in SMEs there has been conducted research on a

local basis. Bennett and Robson (1999) investigate the use of external business advice in Britain.

Their results show that 83% of the interviewed SMEs make an appeal to accountants. They argue

that accountants inspire a high level of institutional confidence. More recently, Everaert et al.

(2007) examined the use of accounting services by Belgian SMEs. Following Lacity and

Willcocks (1998) they used three sourcing strategies based on the degree of outsourcing. Their

results show that on average 35% of the accounting tasks are being outsourced and roughly half

of the companies follow a selective outsourcing strategy. As opposed to the latter, Nayak et al.


(2007) conclude that accounting tasks appeared to be the least outsourced tasks in manufacturing

firms.

Academic literature on outsourcing tax functions is scarce. Dunbar and Phillips (2001)

examine the determinants of corporate tax function outsourcing. They make a distinction

between tax planning and tax compliance. Their results support the outsourcing practice of tax

functions in SMEs, indicating that larger firms benefit from economies of scale and internalize

their tax-planning and -compliance activities.

We follow the lead of Everaert et al. (2007) and discern four accounting and two fiscal tasks.

Table 1 gives an overview.

[Insert Table 1]

2.2.2. Outsourcing of Information Technology

The second supporting function we identified, is the IT function. Since the beginning of the ‘90s

IT outsourcing has drawn much attention of the academic world. Loh and Venkatraman (1992)

call the decision from Kodak to outsource most of its IT functions to IBM a milestone, indicated

as the pre- and post-Kodak regime. Furthermore, Kakabadse and Kakabadse (2002) argue that IT

is the second most outsourced area with an average of approximately 55% of the organizations in

US and Europe. The survey of Borthick (2001) confirms this finding. She emphasises the growth

in IT outsourcing and argues that “IT outsourcing has evolved from its own phase of buzzword

status in the early 1990s, into a standard business practice” (Borthick, 2001, pg. 28). Only 11

percent of their respondents indicate they are outsourcing not one of the IT functions.

The majority of the available literature focuses on IT outsourcing without making a

difference in the size of the companies. As a consequence, most research deals with outsourcing

in large companies. We especially focus on IT outsourcing in SMEs. Rohde (2004) investigates

the IS/IT outsourcing practices in small and medium-sized manufacturers through an in-depth

analysis. She finds that SMEs consider most of their IT/IS function (apart from the accounting

software) as a commodity which is consequently inviting to be outsourced.


We identify 5 major IT tasks that could possibly be outsourced by SMEs (Table 2). The

software and hardware task are adapted from Rohde (2004). She makes a distinction between

acquisition and maintenance of hardware and software. With regard to software she identifies

another task, namely the adjustment of the software to the company context. The third task to be

considered, is the development and maintenance of the website. Although one could argue that

this is part of the marketing function, we classified this as an IT task because of the lack of an

effective marketing department in most SMEs4 (Carson, 1993; Carson and Gilmore, 2000;

Gilmore, Carson and Rocks, 2006). The fourth task is the helpdesk5. Security of the network

completes the list of five tasks. According to Barthélemy (2001), 56% of the companies

outsource their network management. Also Clark et al. (1995) identify network design and

control as an IS activity.

[Insert Table 2]

2.2.3. Outsourcing of Human Resources Management

Human resources management is the third supporting function we will discuss in this paper.

Kanter (2003) explains her opinion concerning the future of the human resources function in her

book “Human Resources in het 21st Century”. From her point of view, HR as an internal

department in the organisation faces an insecure future and will be carried out elsewhere and in a

different manner. She distinguishes four developments of which outsourcing is one. Kakabadse

and Kakabadse (2002) confirm this development. They find that HR management is the third

most outsourced area in Europe and US with an average of approximately 45% of the surveyed

firms.

The sources we used to enlarge our knowledge of HR outsourcing are all dealing with large

firms. There is little literature available on HR management in SMEs. According to Delmotte,

Lambert, Sels and Van Hootegem (2002), this limited attention is due to the lower “visibility” of

HR management in SMEs. Larger firms have formal procedures, HR departments etc. As a

consequence, many academics doubt whether one could talk of HR management in SMEs.

Bacon, Ackers, Storey and Coates (1996) verify this assertion. They survey the extent to which

4 We conducted an interview with a marketing- and communication agency. The CEO confirmed that most SMEs lack an effective marketing department. (interview with Mrs Janssens, 5th November 2008, Ghent). 5 We didn’t find any literature that explicitly mentioned “helpdesk” as an IT activity. However, we chose to include this task as the result of an interview we conducted with an IT service provider. (interview with Mrs Dankaert, 4th November 2008, Ghent)


the new HR management practices are implemented in small organizations. Their results reveal

that the take-up of the eleven HR key initiatives6 in SMEs is rather high. In the case of two of

these initiatives (team working and increased flexibility between jobs) the adoption is close to

75%. This means that innovative and progressive employee relations practices are not restricted

to large companies and HR management does apply to SMEs.

Also for HR we identify six different tasks. We adopt most tasks of Delmotte and Sels

(2008). They measure the level of HR outsourcing regarding following HR activities: payroll,

training, temporary agency work, recruitment and selection of operational and support staff,

advice in HR management, recruitment and selection of managerial staff, development of job or

wage classification, outplacement, appraisal and career guidance. Lever (1997) also defines six

HR activities: payroll, benefits, training, HR information systems, compensation and

recruitment. We chose to consider only those HR activities that occur in both studies, meaning

we exclude advice in HR management, outplacement, appraisal and career guidance and HR

information systems. Table 3 gives an overview of the six HR tasks that could be outsourced by

SMEs.

[Insert Table 3]

2.2.4. Outsourcing of Fleet Management

Joosen (2004) describes the developments in the car leasing market over the past decade.

According to him, nowadays customers are more critical and require more flexibility from

leasing agencies than before. Besides the financing of their fleet of cars, firms are also looking

for a more professional fleet management that can control the costs of using those cars. This

control of and decrease in costs are often the most important reasons to outsource fleet

management. Besides financial advantages, firms can also achieve a higher quality of their fleet

management.

Thonnon (2007) mentions the existence of a relationship between the size of a company and

the financing of its company cars. One out of two SMEs finance their fleet of cars themselves

6 The eleven key initiatives are a culture change programme, devolved management, team working, performance appraisals, a mission statement, team briefing, quality circles, harmonized terms and conditions, psychometric tests, de-layering, increased flexibility between jobs.


and only 4% of the small firms chooses for a long term rental. According to her, this is a missed

opportunity because full service leasing is an interesting alternative for internal time-consuming

fleet management. As a consequence of this reluctance of SMEs to outsource fleet management,

we might expect that the outsourcing intensity will be rather low.

Through an interview with a service provider7 of fleet management we identified two tasks

for private cars as well as for company cars: acquisition and administration of the maintenance,

assurances and fuel carts (Table 4).

[Insert Table 4]

2.3. Interdependency

In this section we will address the second research question and develop the associated

hypothesis. We want to measure the relationship between the outsourcing intensity of accounting

and the outsourcing intensity of IT, HR and fleet management.

The findings of Ordanini and Silvestri (2008) support a positive relation between recruitment

and selection outsourcing and the outsourcing of other HR practices. They argue that enlarging

the span of outsourced activities positively affects the outsourcing intensity of a firm. Patry,

Tremblay, Lanoie and Lacombe (2008) also conclude that HR outsourcing is more likely to be

found in firms which have already outsourced other activities like finance and IT. An

explanation for the positive influence of experience is given by Gainey and Klaas (2003). They

view knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) gained through experience in outsourcing as an

important factor to effectively manage outsourcing relationships. Some examples of such KSAs

are negotiation skills, knowledge of the vendor’s cost structure and familiarity with the

outsourcing market. Therefore, firms that emphasise outsourcing of different functional areas are

more likely to acquire these KSAs. Such firms are subsequently more likely to outsource other

activities.

This explanation relies on transaction cost economics (TCE) of Williamson (1973). The

principal purpose of this theory is to specify the conditions under which an internal organization

is preferred to the market. This approach argues that the features of the transaction determine

7 Interview with Mrs Phijs, 26th November 2008, Ghent


what the most efficient governance structure is: market (=outsourcing) or hierarchy

(=insourcing). Markets are often assumed to be efficient but efficiency requires that all

information is available to all parties. If this condition is not met, firms can incur costs, called

transaction costs. Gainey and Klaas (2003) assume that prior experience with outsourcing,

resulting in KSAs, reduce these transaction costs for HR outsourcing.

Williamson made two behavioral assumptions that underpin his theory (McIvor, 2009).

Bounded rationality is his first assumption. It refers to the fact that the human mind has cognitive

limitations. A decision-maker is not able to fully understand all cognitive complexities of all

possible decisions. For example, managers do not know in advance all actions a competitor will

take. The second assumption is opportunism, which refers to decision-makers acting “with guile

in a self-interested way” (McIvor, 2009, pg. 47). Williamson (1973) calls these two assumptions

human factors, which may lead to the internalization of an activity. These human factors and

their associated costs increase when a transaction has following features: infrequency,

uncertainty and asset specificity (McIvor, 2009). The negative influence of infrequency explains

why firms that outsource already many activities are more inclined to outsource than firms that

outsource only a few activities. TCE supposes that opportunistic behaviour of a supplier is less

likely to happen when a transaction occurs frequently. Therefore transaction costs are likely to be

lower in a market than in a hierarchy.

Based on this theory we expect a positive relationship between the outsourcing intensity of

other supporting functions (IT, HR and fleet management) and the outsourcing intensity of

accounting tasks:

H1: The outsourcing intensity of the accounting tasks is positively correlated with the

outsourcing intensity of the other staff functions: HR, IT and fleet management.

2.4. Determinants to Explain Outsourcing

In this section we go into a full consideration of the third research question. The hypotheses are

founded mainly on the upper echelons theory (Hambrick and Mason, 1984). This theory states

that top managers’ values and cognitive skills partially influence the strategies and performance

levels of an organization. One assumption made is bounded rationality on account of top

management. Three limitations occur sequentially in this process of bounded rationality. First,

managers do not observe the entire reality. Managers do not take notice of certain aspects


unconsciously; they have a limited field of vision. The second limitation is the fact that managers

selectively perceive only some of the aspects of the limited field of vision. Finally, the managers’

own values and cognitive base shape a filter by which their selectively perceived information is

interpreted (Hambrick and Snow, 1977). This interpretation results in a strategic choice, which

in turn leads to corporate performance. Hambrick and Mason (1984) do not propose outsourcing

as a strategic choice, but we will. In turn, outsourcing leads to corporate performance.

The upper echelons theory emphasises the observable managerial characteristics because

Hambrick and Mason (1984) are of opinion that the psychological dimensions are very difficult

to measure. This theory also focuses on the team of managers and not on the single CEO. In our

study, we assume that the outsourcing decision in small and medium-sized organizations is made

by the owner-manager and not by a team. A study by Feltham, Feltham and Barnett (2005)

investigates the influence of the owner-manager in family businesses. Three to four enterprises

confirm that the company is dependent on the owner-manager. The upper echelons

characteristics proposed in their theory are age, functional tasks, other career experiences,

education, socioeconomic roots, financial position and group characteristics. Functional tasks

evolve from past experience in some functional area. Age and education we will discuss later.

The variable other career experiences considers whether managers have either worked inside or

outside the present organization in the past. Socioeconomic roots equals with a lower or higher

socioeconomic group. Financial position refers to the percent of shares managers own of the

organization and their total income. The last variable, group characteristics, is not relevant for

our research because we consider a single owner-manager.

With respect to our subhypotheses we want to mention that literature on the effect of

manager characteristics (mentioned in the upper echelons theory) on the outsourcing decision is

rather uncommon. We did find literature on the effect of some characteristics on leadership style

and influence tactics. Our subhypotheses are developed from these papers and the interviews we

conducted.

The first characteristic we adopt, is age. During our interviews with the service providers, it

became clear that older owner-managers are more reluctant to outsource (some of) their

activities. Grant et al. (2001) find a positive relationship between age and conservatism. Given

the fact that outsourcing is a relative new concept for SMEs, this could be an explanation for the

findings from our interview. This results in the first subhypothesis.


H2: The age of the owner-manager influences the outsourcing intensity in a negative way.

The second characteristic affecting the outsourcing decision is the past experience in a

functional area. In the upper echelons theory this variable is named ‘functional tasks’. We favour

a slightly different definition for reasons of clarity. McDonald, Westphal and Graebner (2008)

study the effect of outside director acquisition experience on firm acquisition performance. They

find a positive effect of experience on firm performance. We suppose that when an owner-

manager has experience in a certain area, he will not be inclined to outsource (part of) that

activity because his experience contributes to good firm performance.

H3: Past experience in a functional task influences the outsourcing intensity in a negative

way.

The third and last characteristic from the upper echelons theory relevant for our research is

education. Education consists of two dimensions. The first dimension is the level of education.

Barbuto Jr., Fritz, Matkin and Marx (2007) investigate the influence of gender, age and

education on leadership styles and leaders’ influence tactics. With regard to education the latter

make a distinction between high school, bachelor and graduate degree. Leaders with a graduate

degree received the highest scores for both institutional and transformational leadership. Howell

and Avolio (1993) found a positive association between locus of control and transformational

leadership. The latter refer to Bass (1985) to prove that transformational leadership is the

strongest form of leadership and often includes aspects of institutional leadership as well.

Therefore we argue that the higher the level of education, the stronger the locus of control (and

thus transformational leadership) of the owner-manager and the less likely he/she will tend

towards outsourcing. In this way, he is able to supervise the correct execution of the staff

functions. This results in the following subhypothesis:

H4: The level of education of the owner-manager influences the outsourcing intensity in a

negative way.

The second dimension of education is the field of training or education of the owner-

manager. We refer to this characteristic as the field of studies of the owner-manager. Galanaki,

Bourantas and Papalexandris (2008) develop a decision model for outsourcing of training

functions. Only one factor appeared to have impact on outsourcing training functions, namely the

existence of expertise and the investment to provide in-house training. This means that

companies will outsource training when they lack internal resources. Conversely, companies will


not outsource training functions when they have the necessary expertise inside. Everaert, Sarens

and Rommel (2008) investigate why SMEs engage in outsourcing of accounting tasks. They

include educational background as a control variable in their model. They were particularly

interested in whether the education of the CEO had an economic orientation or not. Their results

confirm that CEOs who are qualified in accounting will not outsource accounting. Therefore we

posit that when a manager is qualified in e.g. accounting, he will not outsource this area.

H5: The field of studies of the owner-manager influences the outsourcing intensity of that

functional field (accounting, HR and IT) in a negative way.

Arendt, Priem and Ndofor (2005) introduce a CEO-advisor model of strategic decision

making. Next to the influence of the team of top managers (in accordance with the upper

echelons theory) or the influence of one person (the CEO), this model proposes a middle way

where the CEO takes the final decision, but is assisted in the gathering and interpretation of the

information and the recommendation of the final decision by his advisors (service providers for

instance). The factors influencing this CEO-advisor model are environmental dynamism (see

also Gilley, Greer and Rasheed, 2004a), organizational strategy, CEO leadership style, CEO

tenure and advisor selection. We would like to consider CEO tenure as an independent variable.

Arendt et al. (2005) expect a positive relation between CEO tenure and reliance on the formal

advisory system, postulating that as tenure increases, managers have had the opportunity to

replace incompetent service providers. In the wake of Arendt et al. (2005), we expect

outsourcing to be positively correlated with owner-manager tenure.

H6: Owner-manager tenure influences the outsourcing intensity in a positive way.

The fifth characteristic that could influence the outsourcing decision is the owner-manager’s

gender. Mukhtar (2002) gives evidence for a different management approach between men and

women. Schutjens and Stam (2003) give evidence for the fact that male managers have more

cooperative relationships than female (29% vs. 14%). Subsequently, the following hypothesis is

developed:

H7: The outsourcing intensity is higher for male owner-managers than for female owner-

managers.

Another variable we posit, is whether the company is a family business or not. In the current

increasingly complex and competitive environment, strategic flexibility is a very important


determinant of corporate performance. As a consequence, to maintain a competitive advantage, a

company must be able to adapt quickly to a changing environment. Following Miller, Le Breton-

Miller and Scholnick (2008), there are two opposite views on the effect of family business on

corporate performance. First of all, there is the stewardship perspective. Zahra et al. (2008)

investigate the effect of family commitment on strategic flexibility. The results indicate a

positive relationship. Since outsourcing gives the possibility to focus on core competences and to

have a high level of strategic flexibility, this could indicate a positive relationship between

family business and outsourcing. In the opposite direction, the stagnation perspective holds that

conservatism prevails in family business. This, in turn, could lead to a negative relationship

between outsourcing and family business. The results from Miller et al. (2008) give evidence for

the stewardship perspective. Hence, we formulate following subhypothesis.

H8: A family-business influences the outsourcing decision in a positive way.

The last variable we want to measure is the interest of the owner-manager in accounting, IT,

HR and fleet management. Our exploratory research has taught us that there is a negative

relationship between interest in a specific area and outsourcing of that activity because the

owner-manager enjoys performing that activity himself. We formulate the following hypothesis:

H9: The interest of the owner-manager in a certain functional field (accounting, HR, IT

and fleet management) influences the outsourcing intensity of that field in a negative

way.

In Table 5 we summarize the characteristics of the owner-manager and the expected relationship.

[Insert Table 5]

3. Methodology

3.1. Research design

Our research design can be divided into two parts. The first research method contains six

personal interviews with service providers of SMEs (Appendix 1). We interviewed one provider

of each staff function except for the accounting function8. For this function, we did not conduct

8 IT services (two interviews), recruitment and selection services, wages administration, marketing and fleet management


an interview but used the information from Everaert et al. (2007). The purpose of these

interviews was to get more insight in the different subtasks suppliers take on and to examine the

extent of outsourcing of each subtask (total insourcing, selective outsourcing or total

outsourcing).

The second research method contains the questionnaire (Appendix 2). Each owner-manager

of the sample received an e-mail with an invitation to cooperate with our research by filling in

our questionnaire. The link to this questionnaire was included in the e-mail. We sent two

reminders, respectively one and two weeks after the original invitation was sent.

3.2. Data collection

The population of this study consists of all Belgian SMEs with limited responsibility and public

limited companies with an annual average number ranging from 20 to 250 employees9. The

upper bound is chosen according to the European criteria for SMEs (6 May 2003) and the lower

bound is chosen to exclude the micro-enterprises which often do not have the possibility to chose

between in –and outsourcing.

We obtained a list of 4794 Belgian SMEs from Spectron Business Solutions and generated a

sample of 1999 SMEs using two steps. In the first stage, we used the systematic probability

method to select 2397 SMEs from this list. Subsequently, we randomly selected 1999 SMEs.

Before the questionnaires were sent, we conducted a pilot test with 10 organizations with an

employee number between 10 and 100. After this, the questionnaire was adjusted to eliminate

lack of clarity.

Each owner-manager of the selected SMEs received an e-mail including a link to our

questionnaire. Of the surveys mailed, eleven were returned because of incorrect e-mail

addresses. 298 SMEs completed the questionnaire. Due to two reasons, we had to eliminate 48

companies. Firstly, there were companies for which the sum of the percentages for ‘insourcing’

and ‘outsourcing’ of a subtask was not equal to 100%. Secondly, although we bought the e-mail

addresses of SMEs that fulfilled our criteria, there were some companies who had less than 20 or

more than 250 employees. Eventually, we used data from 250 companies, representing an

effective response rate of 12.5%. Compared to other studies about outsourcing with a similar

9 Also the other criteria of the SME definition, according to the European Commission, are fulfilled.


population, such a response rate seems acceptable (e.g. Everaert et al., 2007(10%); Delmotte and

Sels, 2008(13.3%)).

3.2.1. Non-response bias

We measured the non-response bias in two ways (Table 6). First, a possible non-response bias

was examined by comparing early and late respondents (Armstrong and Overton, 1977).

According to this method, we compared the earliest responses with responses received later.

There were no significant differences in terms of number of employees (2008 and 2007), total

assets (2008 and 2007), sales 2008 and outsourcing intensity (accounting, HR, IT and fleet

management) found between the responses of these two groups (Table 6 – Panel A).

Furthermore, we compared our data with the Belfirst database of Bureau Van Dijck in terms of

number of employees and total assets. Again, we identified no significant differences between

these two databases (Table 6 – Panel B). These results suggest that the received responses do not

contain a non-response bias. As a consequence, we can generalize our findings to the whole

population of Belgian SMEs.

[Insert Table 6]

3.3. Variable Measures and Reliability

3.3.1. Measurement of Dependent Variables

The third question intends to measure the effects of owner-manager characteristics on the

outsourcing intensity of accounting, IT, HR and fleet management. To measure the outsourcing

intensities, we asked our respondents to indicate the workload (in percentages) of the subtasks of

accounting, IT, HR and fleet management that were performed internally and externally. The

extent of outsourcing of each subtask ranged from 0% (total insourcing) to 100% (total

outsourcing). Subsequently, the overall outsourcing intensity of each supporting activity is

calculated as the average of the percentages for the subtasks performed externally. This overall

outsourcing intensity is similar to the outsourcing intensity meant by Gilley and Rasheed (2000).

This variable takes into account both depth (degree of outsourcing) and breadth (number of

subtasks outsourced) of outsourcing (Everaert et al., 2007). Following Lacity and Willcocks

(1998) we turned this continuous variable into a categorical one. When less than 20% of an


activity is performed externally, this is called ‘total insourcing’. When more than 80% is

performed externally, this is seen as ‘total outsourcing’. When an activity is performed outside

from 20% through 80%, we speak of selective outsourcing.

Table 7 gives an overview of the measurement items and reliability measures. The first

column indicates the reliability measures for the overall outsourcing intensities. The second

column indicates the Cronbach’s alpha if the corresponding item was deleted. This value gives

an indication of which items should be deleted if we want to improve the Cronbach’s alpha for

that construct. The outsourcing intensity of accounting was measured using six items (six

subtasks) and exhibited a sufficiently high Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88. In the second column all

values range between 0.84 and 0.90, which gives an indication that there are no items that distort

the reliability measure. The nine subtasks of IT allowed us to measure the outsourcing intensity

of IT. The construct obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91 and was found to be consistent. The

outsourcing intensity of fleet management is measured by four items or subtasks. The reliability

measure is 0.92, which is sufficiently high. With respect to the outsourcing intensity of HR, we

are faced with difficulties. Cronbach’s alpha is only 0.51 for the construct including the six

subtasks we initially identified. This low value is an indication that the subtasks we identified, in

their entirety, are not appropriate to measure the outsourcing intensity of HR. This is somewhat

surprising since we adopted those tasks from earlier studies (Delmotte and Sels, 2004; Lever,

1997). As a consequence, we decided to measure the outsourcing intensity of HR by including

only the three recruitment and selection subtasks10. We found subsequently a Cronbach’s alpha

of 0.63, which is just above the cut-off value of 0.60, but still not a strong scale. With respect to

the research questions, we decided to use this improved construct.

[Insert Table 7]

3.3.2. Measurement of Independent Variables

To measure the effect of personality characteristics of owner-managers on outsourcing, we

identified eight independent variables. The majority of these variables are measured using a self-

reported measure. Age and tenure of the owner-manager was measured by asking the owner-

manager to indicate his age and the number of mandate years. Owner-manager tenure was

10 We excluded the subtasks ‘function and pay classification’, ‘wages administration’ and ‘training’.


subsequently recoded into a dummy variable with 0 equals five or less mandate years as manager

and 1 equals more than five mandate years. With respect to experience and interest, we were

particularly interested to know whether the owner-manager had experience and/or interest in

accounting, HR, IT and/or fleet management. Both are measured by a five-point Likert-type

scale (1= no experience, 5= a lot of experience; 1= no interest, 5= a lot of interest). Fourth, we

measured education which consists of two dimensions. Accordingly, there is one question in

which we asked to indicate the owner-manager’s level of education and one to indicate the field

of the study. Concerning the latter, we were again especially interested in studies involving

accounting, HR and IT. Therefore, we recoded the field of study into three dummy variables:

economic oriented or not, social oriented or not and technological oriented or not. Field of

studies is not included as an explanatory variable for fleet management since there exist no

studies on fleet management. Level of education was initially measured by a scale (1= secondary

education, 5= postgraduate), but was also recoded into a dummy variable in which 0 equals no

university degree and 1 equals university degree. Gender and family business are also measured

as dummy variables: 1 equals respectively male and family business, 0 equals respectively

female and not a family business.

3.3.3. Measurement of Control Variables

Despite of the fact we only want to examine the influence of the characteristics of the owner-

manager on the outsourcing intensity, other characteristics may also influence the outsourcing

intensity. Therefore we control for three variables. The first control variable is size. Literature

shows that size of an organization influences the outsourcing intensity (Klaas, McClendon and

Gainey, 2001; Bennett & Robson, 1999). Size is measured by five different proxies: number of

employees in 2007 and 2008, total assets in 2007 and 2008 and sales in 2008. Therefore we used

two different sets of data referring respectively to 2008 and 2007. To obtain the first set, we

asked the participants to self-report this data. We provided six answering categories for sales

200811. Likewise, for total assets 2008 we provided seven categories. Number of employees 2008

was measured as a continuous variable. The second set, we obtained from the Belfirst database

and the National Bank of Belgium. Both, total assets 2007 and number of employees 2007, are

continuous variables.

11 < 1.000.000 euro; 1.000.001 – 2.000.000 euro; 2.000.001 – 4.000.000 euro; 4.000.001 – 6.000.000 euro; 6.000.001 – 10.000.000 euro; > 10.000.000 euro.


Since small Belgian companies are not required to disclose their turnover, sales 2007 could

not be used as a proxy. Further, we can not measure size as the average number of employees in

2007 or 2008 because this number is directly influenced by the outsourcing decision (Leiblein

and Miller, 2003). Finally, there are three remaining proxies. In the regression analyses we used

for each staff function the most appropriate proxy.

According to Klaas et al. (2001), our second control variable is industry. They found

significant relationships between certain industries and their extent of outsourcing. In our

questionnaire we included eight industries and asked the respondents to indicate the industry

(industries) they are in. These eight classifications were used as dummy variables.

The last control variable is maturity, measured as the age of the firm. Gilley, McGee,

Rasheed (2004b) argue that “less mature firms simply lack the resources necessary to internalize

all functional activities” (Gilley et al., 2004b, pg. 122). They will as a consequence be more

inclined to outsource functional activities. To measure this control variable, we asked the

respondents to self-report the year in which their organization was founded. We subsequently

computed the variable firm age by subtracting the reported year from the year of data collection.

3.3.4. Model specification

Because of collinearity problems for two independent variables12, we made two regression

models for each supporting function to test the relationship between outsourcing intensity and

the characteristics of the owner-manager. With respect to control variable size, we tested each

model with the three remaining proxies13. We selected the most appropriate proxy for each

supporting activity. The corresponding formulas for the models are:

- model 1 (experience):

Outsourcing intensity supporting functioni = α0,i + α1,i experience + α2,i age + α3,i tenure +

α4,i gender + α5,i level of education + α6,i field of studies + α7,i family business + α8,i age firm +

α9,i industry + α10,i size + εi

12 These variables are experience and interest. 13 The three proxies are sales (2008), total assets (2008), and total assets (2007).


- model 2 (interest):

Outsourcing intensity supporting functioni = α0,i + α1,i experience + α2,i age + α3,i tenure +

α4,i gender + α5,i level of education + α6,i field of studies + α7,i family business + α8,i age firm +

α9,i industry + α10,i size + εi

i = firm

4. Results

4.1. Descriptive statistics

Table 8 shows the descriptive statistics. These statistics are interesting with respect to the first

research question which deals with the outsourcing intensity of accounting, HR, IT and fleet

management. Figure 1 gives an overview of the outsourcing strategies. The descriptives of the

outsourcing strategy for accounting show that more than half of the responding companies chose

not to outsource their accounting tasks. Close to 40% of the investigated companies outsource

accounting selectively and barely 10% outsources accounting totally. With respect to the overall

outsourcing intensity of accounting, the average is 29%. This intensity increases as a firm goes

further in the accounting process (from 8% (entry of invoices and financial transactions) towards

50% (Belgian corporate income tax compliance)).

Although total outsourcing is absolutely out of the question for HR, 60% of the responding

SMEs prefer a selective outsourcing strategy. Furthermore, as shown in Panel A of Table 8, the

responding firms are, on average, outsourcing about a quarter of the HR services. The subtask

function and pay classification has the lowest outsourcing intensity while, on average, 50% of

the wages administration is outsourced.

With only 25% of the responding companies who perform IT inside, this is the most popular

supporting function to be outsourced. More than 20% outsources IT totally and roughly 50%

outsources IT selectively. The statistics of the outsourcing intensity of IT reveal no remarkable

differences between the subtasks (Table 8 – Panel A). The percentages range from 30% to 60%.

The three most frequently outsourced tasks are maintenance of hardware and software and

development of the website. Acquisition and installation of hardware is the least outsourced IT

task.


In contrast to the latter supporting activity fleet management is the least attractive candidate

for outsourcing. More than 70% of the companies prefer to perform fleet management inside.

Also the average outsourcing intensity and the single intensities of the different subtasks are

rather low (12% to 18%).

The general features of the investigated SMEs reveal the following. About 67% of the

responding owner-managers indicated that their firm is a family business. With regard to the

experience and interest in the different supporting activities, the levels are rather high (in most

cases a mean of 4 on 5). Especially the interest in marketing and sales is high (minimum 2 and

on average 4 on 5). Furthermore, the majority of the responding owner managers have a

university degree and about 40% percent studied economical sciences.

[Insert Figure 1]

[Insert Table 8]

Table 9, 10 and 11 relate the outsourcing intensity of each functional task with the various

explanatory and control variables. The results are based on independent t tests for the dummy

variables and on correlation analyses for numeric variables.

Table 9 indicates that, concerning IT and accounting, the outsourcing intensity seems to be

significantly higher in family businesses, while the outsourcing intensity of fleet management is

significantly lower in these businesses. Furthermore, the results show that there are differences

in the outsourcing intensity of accounting and fleet management according to owner-manager

tenure. When tenure is low (5 or less than 5 years), the extent of outsourcing accounting is lower

whereas the inverse applies for the outsourcing intensity of fleet management. With regard to the

field of studies of the owner-manger, we note that when the field is economic (law or economical

sciences), the outsourcing intensity of accounting is marginally lower. Table 9 indicates further

that building firms seem to have a lower outsourcing intensity of fleet management. In contrast

to the latter, financial service providers are more involved in outsourcing of fleet management,

but less in outsourcing of accounting. It also should be noted that there are no significant

differences in the outsourcing intensity of HR according to the dummy variables.


[Insert Table 9]

Table 10 shows the Pearson correlation coefficients of the continuous variables including

three proxies for size from 2008. Table 11 shows the same matrix, but including two proxies of

size from 2007. These tables allow us to have a first look at the relationships among the

variables. The outsourcing intensity of HR seems not to be correlated with one of the

explanatory or control variables. Furthermore, experience in a certain functional area

(accounting, IT, HR and fleet management) is significantly correlated with the interest in that

area. This high level of correlation between those two independent variables indicates

collinearity problems. As an answer, we used two models for each supporting function.

[Insert Table 10]

[Insert Table 11]

4.2. Outsourcing interdependency

Concerning our second research question, we made the following hypothesis:

H1: The outsourcing intensity of the accounting tasks is positively correlated with the

outsourcing intensity of the other staff functions: HR, IT and fleet management.

Table 12 shows the correlations between the outsourcing intensities of the four supporting

functions. We are interested in the interdependency of the outsourcing intensity of accounting

and the other three supporting activities. The results show that accounting is positively correlated

with IT and negatively correlated with fleet management. For HR, no association was found.

Consequently, our hypothesis can be partly accepted. Although it is not our intention to measure

the interdependency of the outsourcing intensities mutually, we mention that the outsourcing

intensity of HR appears to be positively correlated with fleet management while the outsourcing

intensity of IT is negatively correlated with fleet management.

[Insert Table 12]


4.3. Relationship outsourcing intensity and the personal characteristics of

the owner-manager

We tested our eight hypotheses with respect to the outsourcing intensity of each supporting

function. In the following paragraphs, we will reveal the results of each supporting activity

separately. Panel A shows the regression including only the control variables size, industry and

age of the firm. Panel B and C show the results for the regression with respectively the

independent variable experience and interest. For each supporting function, except HR, the

adjusted R² increases when the explanatory variables are included.

4.3.1. Accounting

Table 13 presents a view on the results of the regression with the outsourcing intensity of

accounting as dependent variable. The most appropriate proxy for size appeared to be sales

200814. All models are significant at 1%. Panels B and C reveal that family business and age are

explanatory variables. Age has a negative and family business a positive relationship with the

outsourcing intensity of accounting. Both are significant at 5%. With respect to the control

variables, we conclude that age of the company, financial services and size have a significant

negative influence on outsourcing intensity. They all have a negative influence on outsourcing at

a significance level of 5%.

[Insert Table 13]

4.3.2. IT

Table 14 shows the results for the outsourcing intensity of IT as dependent variable. All models

are significant at 5%, except the model with only the control variables included. The most

appropriate proxy for size is total assets 2007.15 Panel B reveals two significant explanatory

variables: experience and family business (both significant at alpha minimum 5%). Panel C adds

14 We mention that each model including one of the other proxies for ‘size’ was also significant. The F- values were : * experience : F(sales 2008)= 3.191, F(total assets 2008)=2.691, F(total assets 2007)=2.751 * interest : F(sales 2008)= 3.175, F(total assets 2008)=2.711, F(total assets 2007)=2.710 15 We mention that each model including one of the other proxies for ‘size’ was also significant. The F- values were : * experience : F(sales 2008)= 1,818, F(total assets 2008)= 1.811, F(total assets 2007)= 1.840 * interest : F(sales 2008)=2.293, F(total assets 2008)= 2.261, F(total assets 2007)= 2,260


interest and level of education as significant explanatory variables. Interest and experience have

a negative influence on outsourcing of IT while family business and level of education have a

positive influence.

[Insert Table 14]

4.3.3. HR

As mentioned above, Cronbach’s alpha for HR was only 0.51116. Because this value was

insufficient, we made a construct of HR intensity with only three items included. This new

construct permits us to make a regression with outsourcing intensity of HR as dependent

variable. However, the results indicate that all three models are insignificant (Table 15)17.

[Insert Table 15]

4.3.4. Fleet management

The regression models for fleet management as dependent variable are significant at 1%. Similar

to IT, the most appropriate proxy for size is total assets 200718. Also here, Panel B and C (Table

16) confirm that family business has a significant and negative influence. In Panel C, tenure is

marginally significant (at alpha 10%) and negatively associated with the outsourcing intensity.

With respect to the control variables, two industries are considerable: building industry and

financial services. They have respectively a significant negative and positive influence on the

outsourcing intensity of fleet management. Size also has a positive influence (at alpha 10%).

[Insert Table 16]

16 We mention that each model including one of the other proxies for ‘size’ was also not significant. The F-values were : * experience : F(sales 2008)= 0.783, F(total assets 2008)= 0.546, F(total assets 2007)= 0,546 * interest : F(sales 2008)= 0.906, F(total assets 2008)= 0.659, F(total assets 2007)= 0.658 17 We also made a regression with wages administration as dependent variable. Also in this case, the results indicated that the three models were not significant. 18 We mention that each model including one of the other proxies for ‘size’ was also significant. The F-values were : * experience : F(sales 2008)= 2.773, F(total assets 2008)= 2.676, F(total assets 2007)= 2.880 * interest : F(sales 2008)= 2.815, F(total assets 2008)= 2.697, F(total assets 2007)= 2.932


5. Discussion

The purpose of this paper is threefold. The first objective is to identify which supporting

activities are being outsourced by SMEs. With respect to accounting, which is the main

supporting function, the findings demonstrate that more than half of the investigated companies

do not outsource accounting. Approximately 40% choose selective outsourcing and only 10%

opt for total outsourcing. These results are somewhat disappointing compared with the results

from previous studies. Everaert et al. (2007) argue that more than half of the SMEs outsource

accounting selectively. Also the outsourcing intensity of firms examined in our study is

significantly less than 35%, the percentage established by Everaert et al. (2007). This is mainly

caused by a much lower level of the outsourcing intensity of the Belgian corporate income tax

compliance (71,2% vs. 49,28%). Bennett and Robson (1999), who measured outsourcing

accounting as a dummy, also clearly show that accounting is one of the most attractive

candidates for outsourcing.

With respect to the outsourcing intensity of HR, literature agrees it is an attractive candidate

for outsourcing. Kakabadse and Kakabadse (2002) prove that 45% of all companies outsource

HR. These findings are confirmed by our results, which demonstrate that more than 60% of the

SMEs outsource HR selectively. Also Delmotte and Sels (2008) point out that 89.2% of the

SMEs outsource one or more HR activities. In their study wages administration is the most

frequently outsourced activity (71.8%). This percentage is rather high compared to Gilley et al.

(2004a), according to whom manufacturing firms outsource only 33.49% of the value of wages

administration. In our study the outsourcing intensity lies somewehere in between these two

percentages and seems to be a reasonable average.

In this study, IT turns out to be the most frequently outsourced supporting function. This

result is consistent with previous research (Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 2002). Willcocks, Lacity

and Fitzgerald (1995) investigated 61 IT outsourcing decisions. Our approach is similar to theirs,

as we also distinguish between total and selective outsourcing. In their study 23% of all

decisions resulted in total outsourcing while 52% resulted in selective outsourcing. In ours

approximately the same results were obtained.

More than 70% of the SMEs perform fleet management inside. These findings cannot be

compared with any other data because, as far as we know, research on the outsourcing of fleet

management is missing. This lack of academic references might indicate that fleet management


is not easily outsourced by SMEs. As a consequence, our results can only be compared with

those put forward by Thonnon (2007). She argues that only 4% of the SMEs choose for a long

term rental. The explanatory interview with a manager of a fleet management company also

revealed the reluctance of SMEs to outsource fleet management (interview with Mrs Phijs, 26th

November 2008, Ghent). Outsourcing fleet management is a relatively new concept for SMEs

and many companies are therefore not aware of the financial benefits of outsourcing.

Secondly, we have investigated the relationship between the outsourcing intensity of

accounting and the outsourcing intensity of the other three supporting functions. The

outsourcing intensity of accounting is positively correlated with outsourcing IT and negatively

with outsourcing fleet management. An explanation for the positive correlation between the

outsourcing of accounting and IT is given by Gainey and Klaas (2003). They argue that firms

experienced in outsourcing one activity are able to reduce transaction costs for outsourcing other

activities. The negative correlation with fleet management is not corroborated by our hypothesis,

but this is hardly surprising. We assume that any owner-manager who personally manages his

vehicle fleet will not be familiar with accounting, so that they are likely to be inclined to

outsource their accounting tasks and vice versa.

Thirdly, we want to explain outsourcing intensity by linking it to characteristics of the

owner-manager of the SMEs. Because the model for HR is not significant, we can only draw

conclusions for the outsourcing intensity of accounting, IT and fleet management. Table 17 gives

an overview of our findings. In every model family business turns out to be a significant

explanatory variable. There are, however, remarkable differences. Accounting and IT appear to

be outsourced rather more by family businesses. It follows that the stewardship perspective

(Miller et al., 2008) is confirmed by our hypothesis, with regard to accounting and IT. By

contrast, family businesses are less inclined to outsource fleet management. This finding is

consistent with the stagnation perspective (Miller et al., 2008). Given the fact that the

outsourcing of fleet management is a fairly new concept, conservatism indeed prevails in family

businesses. Experience and interest are significantly associated with IT only. As we predicted, a

higher level of experience and interest in a certain activity will lead to insourcing it. As a

consequence, our hypotheses are accepted. Regarding the owner-manager’s age, we found

evidence that it influences the outsourcing intensity of accounting negatively. Older managers

are apparently more conservative than their younger colleagues. We can consequently accept

hypothesis 2. Unlike Everaert et al. (2008), who found a negative relationship between the


outsourcing of accounting and the manager’s economic education profile, the hypothesis about

the field of studies is not supported by the data. We only found a marginally significant

difference in the outsourcing intensity of accounting according to the owner-manager’s field of

studies (a higher intensity if they were not ‘economic’). Everaert et al. (2008) also included the

level of education as a control variable. It was found to affect the outsourcing intensity

negatively. Our results do not support the association with the level of education. Further, tenure

turns out to have a marginally significant and negative effect on the outsourcing intensity of fleet

management. This finding is in contrast with our hypothesis, but we found some evidence in one

of the preliminary interviews. The manager of a fleet management company pointed out that the

new generation of owner-managers seem more inclined to outsource their fleet management

(interview with Mrs Phijs, 26th November 2008, Ghent). The last variable we examined is

gender. This variable appears to have no explanatory power. As a consequence, hypotheses 4, 5,

6 and 7 are rejected.

With respect to the control variables, we present the following results. The age of the

company has a negative influence on the outsourcing of accounting, i.e. the older the company,

the less frequent outsourcing of accounting will tend to be. Gilley et al. (2004b) explain this

negative relationship by referring to the lack of internal resources to insource all functional

activities. Furthermore, when the company provides financial services, accounting will be

insourced, while fleet management will be outsourced. Intuitively, this can be explained as

follows: many companies are likely to have the accounting/financial expertise inside and will

consequently not outsource accounting tasks. Fleet management, on the other hand, will be more

readily outsourced in these companies because company cars are generally part of the

remuneration. Furthermore, when the SME is in the building industry, fleet management will be

more easily outsourced. Finally, the bigger a company, the more it will outsource fleet

management and the less it will outsource accounting, which is in agreement with expectancies

as investigated by Klaas et al. (2001).

[Insert Table 17]


6. Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of outsourcing four supporting

functions in small and medium-sized firms in Belgium: accounting, IT, HR and fleet

management. This study highlights three main perspectives. First of all, we have found that IT is

the most frequently outsourced activity, followed by accounting and HR. Only a minority of the

examined companies are willing to totally outsource IT and accounting. With respect to selective

outsourcing, HR is the frontrunner, followed by IT and accounting. Fleet management did not

appear to be an attractive candidate for outsourcing in Belgian SMEs. Secondly, the outsourcing

of accounting is positively correlated with the outsourcing of IT, but negatively correlated with

outsourcing fleet management. A possible explanation for the first relationship is found in

transaction cost economics. A last implication of our research is that owner-managers seem to

have a substantial influence on the outsourcing intensity of three supporting functions:

accounting, IT and fleet management. The owner-managers were not found to have any impact

on the outsourcing of HR. Family businesses seem to outsource accounting and IT more than

non-family businesses. They are, however, reluctant to outsource fleet management. Both the

stewardship perspective and stagnation perspective (Miller et al., 2008) offer a sound

explanation for these findings. Furthermore, younger managers were found to be more willing to

outsource their accounting activities than older managers. Both experience and interest in IT had

a negative impact on the outsourcing of IT. Neither the level of education nor the field of studies

were found to have any impact on the outsourcing intensity. Furthermore, we did not identify

gender and tenure to be a determinant for outsourcing. In addition, the control variables in the

model suggest no consistent results for all three supporting activities. Whereas firm maturity

matters for the outsourcing of accounting, it does not for the outsourcing of IT or fleet

management. Size has a negative impact on the outsourcing of accounting, but a positive impact

on the outsourcing of fleet management. The same conclusion can be drawn when the SME

provides financial services. Finally, the building industry influences the outsourcing of fleet

management in a negative way.

This study is subject to several limitations. Firstly, we would like to point out that, although

the tests do not reveal any non-response bias, we do not know whether our results can be

generalised for other countries than Belgium. Secondly, the HR tasks we identified were not

appropriate to measure outsourcing intensity of HR. To solve this problem we measured the

outsourcing intensity of HR by means of three items concerning recruitment and selection.


Hence, it is rather doubtful that SMEs engage in any other HR tasks but recruitment and

selection.

To conclude we wish to give some directions for future research. Firstly, we should

emphasise the interdependency between the outsourcing intensity of accounting and the

outsourcing intensity of IT and fleet management. We put forward transaction costs as a possible

explanation for this positive interdependency. There may, however, be a number of different

explanations. Secondly, as our measure for the outsourcing intensity of HR turned out to be

inappropriate, further research could focus on which HR tasks are typically performed by SMEs.

Thirdly, owner-managers seem to have a definite impact on the outsourcing intensity of

accounting, IT and fleet management. However, four of the personality characteristics we

identified, did not have any influence. Because we are the first to address personality

characteristics of the owner-manager as determinants for the outsourcing intensity of accounting,

IT, HR and fleet management, it would interest us greatly to know whether further research

would confirm our findings.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs VI

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Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs VIII

Figures

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs IX

Figure 1 – Outsourcing intensities of supporting tasks

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Accounting HR IT Fleet

Managament

total outsourcing

selective outsourcing

total insourcing

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs X

Tables

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XI

Table 1 - Accounting tasks

– Entry of invoices and financial transactions

– Preparation of an interim profit and loss account (e.g. monthly profit calculation)

– Period end accounting (e.g. depreciations, interest accruals)

– Preparation of financial statements (balance sheets, profit and loss account, notes)

– Belgian Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance

– Belgian corporate income tax compliance

Table 2 - IT tasks

– Hardware

• Acquisition and installation

• Maintenance

– Software

• Selection and installation

• Adjustment to the company context

• Maintenance and updates

– Website: development and maintenance

– Helpdesk

– Security of the network

Table 3 – HR Tasks

– Wages administration (payroll and benefits)

– Training

– Recruitment and selection of the carrying staff

– Recruitment and selection of temporary employees

– Recruitment and selection of the executives

– Function and pay classification

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XII

Table 4 – Fleet Management tasks

– Acquisition of private cars

– Acquisition of company cars

– Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts...of private cars

– Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts... of company cars

Table 5 – Characteristics of the owner-manager.

Characteristic Relationship

- Age -

- Past Experience in a Functional Task -

- Level of Education -

- Field of Studies -

- Owner-Manager Tenure +

- Gender (m=1; f=0) +

- Family Business +

- Interest -

Table 6 – Non-response bias

Panel A p-value

Outsourcing intensity of accounting 0.818

Outsourcing intensity of HR 0.437

Outsourcing intensity of IT 0.287

Outsourcing intensity of fleet management 0.424

Number of employees (2008) 0.293


Total assets (2008) 0.477


Turnover (2008) 0.641

Panel B



Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XIII

Table 7 – Multi-item variable measurement

Measures and items Cronbach's alpha

Cronbach's Alpha if Item

Deleted Outsourcing intensity Accounting (ranging from 0% to 100%) 0.88

1. Entry of invoices and financial transactions 0.89 2. Preparation of an interim profit and loss account 0.86 3. Period end accounting 0.84 4. Preparation of financial statements 0.86 5. Belgian Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance 0.87 6. Belgian corporate income tax compliance 0.87

Outsourcing intensity IT (ranging from 0% to 100%) 0.91 1. Acquisition and installation of hardware 0.91 2. Maintenance of hardware 0.91 3. Selection and installation of software 0.90 4. Adjustment to the company context of software 0.90 5. Maintenance and updates of software 0.90 6. Development of website 0.91 7. Maintenance of website 0.91 8. Helpdesk 0.90 9. Security of the network 0.90

Outsourcing intensity Fleet Management (ranging from 0% to 100%) 0.92 1. Acquisition of private cars 0.89 2. Acquisition of company cars 0.90 3. Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts...of private cars 0.91 4. Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts... of company cars 0.90

Outsourcing intensity HR (ranging from 0% to 100%) 0.51 1. Function and pay classification 0.52 2. Recruitment and selection of the carrying staff 0.40 3. Recruitment and selection of temporary employees 0.43 4. Recruitment and selection of the executives 0.40 5. Wages administration (payroll and benefits) 0.52 7. Training 0.51

Outsourcing intensity HR (3 items) (ranging from 0% to 100%) 0.63 1. Recruitment and selection of the carrying staff 0.58 2. Recruitment and selection of temporary employees 0.41 3. Recruitment and selection of the executives 0.63

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XIV

Table 8 – Descriptive statistics

Panel A N Min. Max. Mean S.D Accounting

Outsourcing intensity Accounting 250 0% 100% 29% 30.49 Entry of invoices and financial transactions 250 0% 100% 8% 24.94 Preparation of an interim profit and loss account 250 0% 100% 19% 34.57 Period end accounting 250 0% 100% 32% 0.39 Preparation of financial statements 250 0% 100% 48% 44.71 Belgian Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance 250 0% 100% 19% 36.37 Belgian corporate income tax compliance 250 0% 100% 50% 46.38

HR Outsourcing intensity HR 250 0% 70% 27% 15.38 Function and pay classification 249 0% 100% 3% 11.29 Recruitment and selection of the carrying staff 250 0% 100% 17% 22.18 Recruitment and selection of temporary employees 241 0% 100% 36% 37.71 Recruitment and selection of the executives 248 0% 100% 22% 27.71 Wages administration (payroll and benefits) 248 0% 100% 49% 34.11 Training 248 0% 100% 37% 31.32

IT Outsourcing intensity IT 250 0% 100% 50% 30.58 Acquisition and installation of hardware 250 0% 100% 32% 36.33 Maintenance of hardware 250 0% 100% 58% 40.43 Selection and installation of software 250 0% 100% 38% 37.36 Adjustment to the company context of software 248 0% 100% 56% 39.13 Maintenance and updates of software 248 0% 100% 58% 40.64 Development of website 250 0% 100% 59% 38.90 Maintenance of website 250 0% 100% 42% 40.41 Helpdesk 224 0% 100% 48% 42.42 Security of the network 250 0% 100% 54% 42.61

Fleet management Outsourcing intensity Fleet Management 250 0% 100% 16% 30.14 Acquisition of private cars 244 0% 100% 15% 32.62 Acquisition of company cars 232 0% 100% 12% 30.87

Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts...of private cars 246 0% 100% 18% 33.90

Administration of the maintenance, assurances, fuel carts... of company cars 236 0% 100% 15% 31.94

Experience HR 247 0 5 4 1.03 IT 246 0 5 3 1.26 Accounting and Finance 249 0 5 3 1.18 Marketing and sales 249 0 5 4 1.04 Production 231 0 5 3 1.48 Fleet management 247 0 5 3 1.34

Interest HR 249 0 5 4 1.12 IT 247 0 5 3 1.34 Accounting and Finance 250 0 5 4 1.02 Marketing and sales 250 2 5 4 0.87 Production 234 0 5 4 1.42 Fleet management 249 0 5 3 1.46

Age 250 30 75 50 81.17 Tenure 250 1 45 17 103.34

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XV

Age company 250 1 196 40 28.19 Number of employees 2008 250 20 246 62 431.36 Number of employees 2007 250 17 195 50 36.79

Total assets 2007 (in thousands) 250 276 175,397 9,904 16,098.15

Panel B N Percentage

Tenure ≤ 5 years 32 13% > 5 years 218 87%

Gender of the owner-manager Woman 12 5% Man 238 95%

Highest level of education of the owner-manager Lower than university degree 131 55% University degree 107 45%

Field of studies Social sciences 10 4% Exact and applied sciences 65 26% Economic sciences 102 41% IT 5 2% Languages 13 5% Technical 27 11% Law 6 2% Others 11 4% No idea 11 4%

Industry Production B2C 28 11% Production B2B 91 36% Building industry 57 23% Wholesale and retail 51 20% Distribution en transport 22 9% Catering en hospitality business 3 1% Other services 46 18% Financial services 8 3% Other 6 2%

Sales 2008 < 1.000.000 Euros 1 0% 1.000.001 – 2.000.000 Euros 6 2% 2.000.001 – 4.000.000 Euros 32 13% 4.000.001 – 6.000.000 Euros 31 12% 6.000.001 – 10.000.000 Euros 49 20% > 10.000.000 Euros 128 51% No idea 3 1%

Total assets 2008 < 500.000 Euros 8 3% 500.001 – 1.000.000 Euros 9 4% 1.000.001 – 3.000.000 Euros 53 21% 3.000.001 – 5.000.000 Euros 45 18% 5.000.001 – 10.000.000 Euros 50 20% 10.000.001 – 20.000.000 Euros 43 17% > 20.000.000 Euros 42 17%

Family business No 83 33% Yes 167 67%

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XVI

Outsourcing intensity of accounting

Total insourcing 130 52% Selective outsourcing 93 37% Total outsourcing 27 11%

Outsourcing intensity of HR Total insourcing 96 38% Selective outsourcing 154 62% Total outsourcing 0 0%

Outsourcing intensity of IT Total insourcing 58 23% Selective outsourcing 132 53% Total outsourcing 60 24%

Outsourcing intensity of fleet management Total insourcing 190 76% Selective outsourcing 39 16%

Total outsourcing 21 8%

Table 9 – Independent t test for dummy variables

Outsourcing intensity Accounting

Outsourcing intensity IT

Outsourcing intensity HR (3 items)

Outsourcing intensity Fleet Management

Gender 0.919 0.509 0.576 -0.659 Tenure -2.316** -1.451 0.280 2.544** Level of education 1.252 -0.279 -0.639 -1.632 Field of studies - Accounting 1.924* -0.854 -0.210 -0.033 Field of studies - HR -1.148 0.029 0.393 -0.069 Field of studies - IT -1.118 1.025 0.066 -1.791* Family business -2.392** -3.149*** 1.023 5.014*** Production B2C -1.428 -0.327 -0.173 0.123 Production B2B 0.008 1.047 -0.693 0.019 Building industry 0.614 -1.033 1.569 2.702*** Wholesale and retail -0.595 -0.883 0.415 1.040 Distribution and transport 1.447 -0.663 0.534 0.813 Catering -0.043 -0.226 -0.673 0.937 Financial services 2.300** 0.608 -0.463 -2.041* Other services -0.508 1.603 0.871 -1.856* * significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level

Statistics shown: t-statistics

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XVII

Table 10 – Correlation matrix (2008)

Experience Interest Outsourcing intensity

HR

IT

Acc

ou

ntin

g

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

HR

IT

Acc

ou

ntin

g

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

Ag

e

Ag

e fir

m

Em

plo

yees

(F

TE

) 20

08

Sal

es 2

008

T.A

20

08

Acc

ou

ntin

g

HR

(3

item

s)

IT

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

Exp

erie

nce HR 1

IT 0.235*** 1

Accounting 0.335*** 0.258*** 1

Fleet Management 0.419*** 0.294*** 0.350*** 1

Inte

rest

HR 0.480*** 0.104 0.151** 0.106 1

IT 0.209*** 0.609*** 0.193*** 0.110 0.369*** 1

Accounting 0.182*** 0.128** 0.595*** 0.225*** 0.345*** 0.396*** 1

Fleet Management 0.249*** 0.177*** 0.138** 0.606*** 0.252*** 0.296*** 0.180*** 1

Age 0.140** -0.051 0.094 0.065 0.080 -0.084 0.038 -0.019 1

Age firm 0.048 -0.017 0.045 0.030 -0.013 0.041 0.048 0.028 0.076 1

Employees (FTE) 2008 -0.093 -0.092 -0.045 -0.131** 0.037 0.022 -0.024 -0.034 0.084 0.168*** 1

Sales 2008 -0.096 -0.112 -0.122 -0.163** 0.049 -0.024 -0.096 -0.093 0.014 0.114 0.450*** 1

T.A 2008 -0.041 -0.012 0.040 -0.133** 0.013 -0.006 0.038 -0.082 0.064 0.194*** 0.407*** 0.515*** 1

Out

sour

cing

in

tens

ity Accounting 0.051 0.094 -0.108 0.178*** -0.076 0.023 -0.083 0.080 -0.115 -0.200*** -0.249*** -0.228*** -0.244*** 1

HR (3 items) -0.006 0.004 -0.149** -0.136** -0.094 -0.001 -0.176*** -0.176*** 0.086 0.013 -0.001 0.113 0.016 -0.038 1

IT -0.125** -0.260*** -0.078 0.048 -0.197*** -0.287*** -0.04 -0.014 0.030 0.001 -0.09 0.069 -0.028 0.139** 0.086 1

Fleet Management 0.089 0.058 0.016 -0.152** 0.083 0.125** 0.047 -0.148** -0.027 -0.07 0.043 0.075 0.037 -0.182*** 0.165*** -0.140** 1

* significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level

Statistics shown: Pearson Correlation Coefficients

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XVIII

Table 11 – Correlation matrix (2007)

Experience Interest Outsourcing intensity

HR

IT

Acc

ou

ntin

g

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

HR

IT

Acc

ou

ntin

g

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

Ag

e

Ag

e fir

m

Em

plo

yees

(F

TE

) 20

07

T.A

20

07

Acc

ou

ntin

g

HR

(3

item

s)

IT

Fle

et

Man

agem

ent

Exp

erie

nce HR 1

IT 0.235*** 1

Accounting 0.335*** 0.258*** 1

Fleet Management 0.419*** 0.294*** 0.350*** 1

Inte

rest

HR 0.480*** 0.104 0.151** 0.106 1

IT 0.209*** 0.609*** 0.193*** 0.110 0.369*** 1

Accounting 0.182*** 0.128** 0.595*** 0.225*** 0.345*** 0.396*** 1

Fleet Management 0.249*** 0.177*** 0.138** 0.606*** 0.252*** 0.296*** 0.180*** 1

Age 0.140** -0.051 0.094 0.065 0.080 -0.084 0.038 -0.019 1

Age firm 0.048 -0.017 0.045 0.030 -0.013 0.041 0.048 0.028 0.076 1

Employees (FTE) 2007 0.052 -0.083 -0.014 -0.158** 0.177*** 0.024 -0.011 -0.016 0.104 0.089 1

T.A 2007 -0.065 -0.088 -0.082 -0.177*** 0.123 0.015 0.072 -0.085 0.144** 0.022 0.428*** 1

Out

sour

cing

in

tens

ity Accounting 0.051 0.094 -0.108 0.178*** -0.076 0.023 -0.083 0.080 -0.115 -0.200*** -0.274*** -0.239*** 1

HR (3 items) -0.006 0.004 -0.149** -0.136** -0.094 -0.001 -0.176*** -0.176*** 0.086 0.013 0.028 0.016 -0.038 1

IT -0.125** -0.260*** -0.078 0.048 -0.197*** -0.287*** -0.04 -0.014 0.030 0.001 -0.117 -0.057 0.139** 0.086 1

Fleet Management 0.089 0.058 0.016 -0.152** 0.083 0.125** 0.047 -0.148** -0.027 -0.07 0.118 0.187*** -0.182*** 0.165*** -0.140** 1



Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XIX

Table 12 - Pearson Correlations Coefficients for the outsourcing intensities

Outsourcing intensity

Accounting

Outsourcing intensity HR

(3 items)

Outsourcing intensity IT

Outsourcing intensity Fleet Management

Outsourcing intensity Accounting 1 Outsourcing intensity HR (3 items) -0.038 1 Outsourcing intensity IT 0.139** 0.086 1 Outsourcing intensity Fleet Management -0.182*** 0.165*** -0.140** 1



Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XX

Table 13 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Accounting

(0%= total insourcing, 100%= total outsourcing)

Prediction

Panel A - control

variables

Panel B - Experience

Panel C - Interest

Experience - -0.089 Interest - -0.058 Age - -0.134** -0.138** Tenure + -0.060 0.098 Gender + 0.108 -0.065 Level of education - 0.053 0.047 Field of studies - -0.071 -0.093 Family business + 0.145** 0.143** Age firm -0.199*** -0.169** -0.176*** Production B2C 0.091 0.085 0.087 Production B2B -0.059 -0.077 -0.067 Building industry -0.068 -0.093 -0.088 Wholesale and retail 0.054 0.016 0.012 Distribution and transport -0.088 -0.081 -0.073 Catering -0.008 -0.024 -0.020 Financial services -0.170*** -0.16** -0.162** Other services -0.078 -0.059 -0.056 Size (Sales 2008) -0.243*** -0.248*** -0.241*** (Constant) *** *** *** N 250 250 250 F 3.515*** 3.191*** 3.175*** p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 Adjusted R² 0.092 0.136 0.135 *significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level

Statistics shown: Standardized Betas

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXI

Table 14 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of IT


Prediction

Panel A - Control Variables


Panel C - Interest

Experience in IT - -0.252*** Interest in IT - -0.283*** Age - -0.008 -0.041 Tenure + 0.067 0.071 Gender + -0.016 0.026 Level of education - 0.106 0.118* Field of studies - -0.026 -0.043 Family business + 0.172** 0.167** Age firm -0.020 -0.049 -0.051 Production B2C 0.019 -0.005 -0.023 Production B2B -0.095 -0.081 -0.109 Building industry 0.016 -0.009 -0.034 Wholesale and retail 0.029 0.013 -0.016 Distribution and transport 0.017 0.014 0.037 Catering -0.006 -0.009 0.023 Financial services -0.057 0.008 -0.009 Other services -0.127 -0.069 -0.134* Size (Total Assets 2007) -0.037 -0.051 -0.011 (Constant) *** *** *** N 250 250 250 F 0.692 1.869** 2.201*** p-value 0.732 0.022 0.005 Adjusted R² -0.013 0.059 0.080 * significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level


Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXII

Table 15 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of HR


Prediction

Panel A - control

variables


Panel C - Interest

Experience - 0.003 Interest - -0.099 Age - 0.120* 0.133* Tenure + 0.023 0.008 Gender + -0.050 -0.063 Level of education - 0.019 0.024 Field of studies - -0.041 -0.051 Family business + -0.035 -0.040 Age firm 0.007 -0.001 -0.001 Production B2C -0.003 0.012 0.013 Production B2B -0.042 -0.062 -0.049 Building industry -0.158** -0.163** -0.150* Wholesale and retail -0.093 -0.059 -0.072 Distribution and transport -0.074 -0.059 -0.046 Catering 0.001 0.018 0.023 Financial services 0.015 -0.010 0.004 Other services -0.087 -0.105 -0.089 Size (Sales 2008) 0.119* 0.137** 0.138** (Constant) ** N 250 250 250 F 0.896 0.783 0.906 p-value 0.538 0.712 0.567 Adjusted R² -0.004 -0.016 -0.007 * significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level


Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXIII

Table 16 – Regression analysis of outsourcing intensity of Fleet Management


Prediction

Panel A - Control Variables


Panel C - Interest

Experience in Fleet Mgt - -0.071 Interest in Fleet Mgt - -0.07 Age - 0.003 -0.003 Tenure + -0.113 -0.119* Gender + 0.068 0.066 Level of education - -0.025 -0.021 Family business + -0.189*** -0.195*** Age firm -0.016 -0.014 -0.01 Production B2C -0.015 0.003 -0.002 Production B2B -0.091 -0.054 -0.07 Building industry -0.228*** -0.193** -0.193** Wholesale and retail -0.117* -0.055 -0.055 Distribution and transport -0.108 -0.075 -0.082 Catering -0.066 -0.085 -0.082 Financial services 0.100 0.152** 0.139** Other services 0.007 0.015 0.006 Size (Total assets 2007) 0.177*** 0.113* 0.12* (Constant) *** ** ** N 250 250 250 F 2.875*** 2.944*** 3.002*** p-value 0.002 0.000 0.000 Adjusted R² 0.070 0.117 0.117 * significant at ≤ 10% level; ** significant at ≤ 5% level; *** significant at ≤ 1% level


Table 17 – Overview findings third research question

Accounting IT Fleet management Characteristics of the owner-manager: o Family business + + - o Experience - o Interest - o Age - Control variables: o Age firm - o Size - + o Industry: financial services - + o Industry: building industry -

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXIV

Appendixes

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXV

Appendix 1: Interviews

Interview IT

Mr. Johan Verbeken (Verbitek) en Mevr. Carolien Danckaert (Pauwels Consulting)

30 oktober 2008, 9u00 en 4 november 2008, 13u00

1. Welke diensten biedt uw bedrijf aan?

Carolien Danckaert:

We kunnen onze activiteiten opdelen in enerzijds engineering en anderzijds IT. De diensten die wij aan de klant leveren zijn:

– helpdesk

– telefonische support: wanneer een klant een probleem heeft, contacteert die ons meestal per telefoon

– softwareontwikkeling op vraag van de klant: daaronder vallen zowel technische, functionele als ontwerpanalyse. Er wordt ook gevraagd om de producten zelf te testen.

– sinds juli hebben we een bedrijf Telco overgenomen dat vooral zal instaan voor de hardware. Dit houdt voornamelijk aankoop en onderhoud in.

– databaseontwikkeling (bestandsbeheer)

Johan Verbeken:

IT hardware, software en integratie in netwerken is de volgende sectoren:

- Medische (US GENT – Privé specialisten – huisdokters)

- Productie (fabrieken – plantenbedrijven)

- KMO

- Huis en tuin gebruikers die voorvloeien uit bovenstaande sectoren.

Back-up op afstand

Werken op afstand

Camerabewaking

Analyse en herstelling met datarecuperatie

Domotica via IT netwerken geïntegreerd met pc en telefonie over IP

Alle domoticasturing, zoals verwarming, airco, zonne-energie, alarmering met beeldherkenning, RF-id (radiofrequent identification) enz.

Optimalisatie van industriële en de iets duurdere privé gebouwen (van plan tot opvolging en afwerking)

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXVI

2. Wat zijn de doorsnee drijfveren om die taken aan jullie door te geven? (strategische motivatie, kosten motivatie…)

Carolien Danckaert:

Er is een gebrek aan kennis over IT bij de bedrijven zelf. De taken die wij uitvoeren voor de klant zijn eigenlijk meer projectgerelateerd. We sluiten dus contracten af voor 3 tot 6 maand. Een consultant van ons gaat dan ter plaatse in het bedrijf de software ontwikkelen en nadien stopt het contract. Het is wel zo dat we van diezelfde bedrijven dan wel andere projecten toegewezen krijgen. Een tweede motivatie is dat het te duur is voor bedrijven om mensen met een bepaald profiel vast aan te nemen. Het is goedkoper om een consultant van ons enkele maanden “in te huren”. Het is ook wel zo dat bedrijven hun kernactiviteiten in huis willen houden. IT is meestal een ondersteunende functie, maar toch blijft er nog altijd een IT-verantwoordelijke binnen het bedrijf die controle op ons uitvoert.

Johan Verbeken:

Ik zie drie belangrijke drijfveren. Ten eerste zijn bedrijven op zoek naar één bedrijf voor alles zodat alle problemen onmiddellijk geanalyseerd en snel opgelost worden. Wij werken daarom ook 24u op 24 en 7dagen op 7. Ten tweede de lage kost waaraan wij onze diensten aanbieden, aangezien we met buitenlandse werknemers werken. Als laatste reden is er de technologische vooruitgang. De technologie vordert zo snel dat men moet uitbesteden. Wij investeren 80% van ons inkomen in R&D, zoals Jan De Nul te Aalst.

3. Schommelende diensten qua tijd? Meer en minder werk, zouden ze daarom uitbesteden?

Carolien Danckaert:

Zoals ik daarjuist al zei zijn onze activiteiten projectgerelateerd, dus er wordt wel degelijk uitbesteed omdat men na enkele maanden die personen met een bepaald profiel niet meer kan gebruiken.

Johan Verbeken:

Wat onze sector betreft is het grote probleem de snel vorderende technologie. Ikzelf studeer 4u per dag, 7dagen op 7.

4. Hebben jullie klanten deze activiteiten vroeger zelf gedaan?

Carolien Danckaert:

Nee. Ik denk dat de taken altijd al uitbesteed geweest zijn. We zijn een extra ondersteuning voor het IT personeel dat in de bedrijven zelf aanwezig is.

Johan Verbeken:

Vijf jaar geleden deden KMO’s sommige interventies zelf. Nu is de voornaamste prioriteit van de bedrijven zich concentreren op hun “core business”.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXVII

5. Zijn er nog andere activiteiten die de klanten aan jullie overlaten?

Carolien Danckaert:

Als klanten van onze diensten tevreden zijn, worden ook wel andere projecten aan ons toegewezen.

Johan Verbeken:

Zeker, alles waar zij zelf geen tijd voor hebben en dat nemen wij graag mee.

6. Welke kenmerken heeft de doorsnee klant, KMO? (sector…)

Carolien Danckaert:

We hebben klanten uit verschillende sectoren: farmacie, productie, energie, banksector…

Johan Verbeken:

- Meer en meer wil de doorsnee manager tijd voor zichzelf en familie.

- Zij willen één contact voor al hun problemen. Één telefoon volstaat en wij handelen alles af.

7. Zit er in het klantenbestand vooral dienstenondernemingen of ook productieondernemingen?

Carolien Danckaert:

Vooral dienstenondernemingen.

Johan Verbeken:

Beide 50/50

8. Hoe groot zijn jullie klanten, de KMO’s? (omzet, werknemers, winst, ouderdom…)

Carolien Danckaert:

Middelgroot tot grote ondernemingen.

Johan Verbeken:

- Tot 50 werknemers

- Van familiebedrijf tot kleine zelfstandige

- Omzet van 100€ tot 1000€

9. Zijn kleinere ondernemingen meer sceptisch?

Carolien Danckaert:

Ja. Kleinere bedrijven hebben een kleiner budget dat kan gespendeerd worden.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXVIII

Johan Verbeken:

Niet echt, zij zweven wel meer in het vacuüm wat betreft kennis. Zij zijn volledig op ons aangewezen door hun gebrek aan tijd voor opleiding.

10. Trekken jullie een grens wat een KMO is?

Carolien Danckaert:

Nee

Johan Verbeken:

Ja, tot 50 pc’s.

11. Wie is jullie contactpersoon bij KMO’s?

Carolien Danckaert:

We onderhandelen eerst me de aankoopdienst o.a. over de kostprijs. Van hen ontvangen we ook een functiebeschrijving. Daarna komen we in contact met de IT-verantwoordelijke.

Johan Verbeken:

Vooral de bedrijfsleider.

12. Evolutie naar de toekomst toe? (online-diensten…)

Carolien Danckaert:

Ik denk dat bedrijven in de toekomst meer zullen uitbesteden. De redenen daarvoor zijn dezelfde als diegene die ik daarjuist heb aangehaald: de loonkost, continue verandering op IT-gebied, opleidingskosten…

In kleinere bedrijven denk ik dat de basisinfrastructuur wel zal overgebracht worden naar een centrale server zodat er in het bedrijf zelf niet veel meer overblijft van de IT-afdeling.

Johan Verbeken:

We proberen onze klanten er van te overtuigen om hun basisinfrastructuur bij ons te huisvesten. Dit biedt alleen al op de factuur elektriciteit een serieuze hap in hun budget. Maar ook de continuïteit is verzekerd. Als hun burelen afbranden bijvoorbeeld, kunnen ze de dag nadien terug verder werken.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXIX

Interview HR: selectie en rekrutering

Mevr. Demeyer Sonja (Accountemps)

maandag 10 november, 9u


Accountemps is vooral gespecialiseerd in tijdelijke en dringende opdrachten in verband met boekhouding/ finance. Robert Half is gespecialiseerd in het zoeken van mensen met het oog op een vast contract.

Onze procedure ziet er als volgt uit:

– Mensen sturen hun CV naar ons door. We maken ons bekend via beurzen, scholen, VDAB, onze eigen website, websites van VBAD, Monster, Vacature…

– De eerste selectie(CV-screening) doen we via telefoon

– Als de persoon geschikt is bevonden na de telefonische screening, dan wordt die op kantoor uitgenodigd. Op kantoor vindt een interview plaats en verschillende testen (boekhoudtest, Excel-test, nauwkeurigheidstest). Er wordt ook aan elke kandidaat gevraagd om minimum 2 referenties van vorige werknemers te geven.

– Vervolgens krijgen we een aanvraag van een klant binnen. We gaan naar dit bedrijf en doen daar de jobopname.

– Op basis van de jobopname, zoeken we in onze database naar geschikte kandidaten.

– Vervolgens geven we aan het bedrijf een telefonische voorstelling van de geselecteerde kandidaten.

– Soms gaan de kandidaten dan nog eens op gesprek bij de klant zelf, soms niet. Uiteindelijk kiest het bedrijf de meest geschikte kandidaat.

– Tijdens de werkperiode doen we aan opvolging zowel bij de klant als bij de werknemer.

De werkkrachten krijgen een tijdelijk contract aangeboden. Soms gebeurt het wel dat zij van het bedrijf zelf een vast contract krijgen, maar eerst moet de interim-periode voldaan zijn.

De procedure van Robert Half (het selectie –en rekruteringskantoor) is gelijklopend met de onze op volgende verschillen na:

– Tijdens het interview bij ons op kantoor zullen ook persoonlijkheidstesten afgenomen worden. Het is belangrijk dat, met het oog op een vast contract, de kandidaten in het bedrijf zelf passen.

– De kandidaten zullen bij een vast contract in ieder geval bij het bedrijf zelf ook op gesprek moeten gaan.

Een andere activiteit die we ook doen is op prospectus gaan. We bezoeken verschillende bedrijven om de jobs, de bedrijfscultuur… beter te leren kennen.

We gaan ook proactief tewerk. De bedrijven waarmee we samenwerken, kennen we goed. Wanneer we een kandidaat binnenkrijgen en die past perfect binnen een bepaald bedrijf, gaan we die voorstellen in dat bedrijf, ook al is er geen vraag gekomen.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXX

Wanneer wij niet kunnen voldoen in de vraag van de klant, dan “onthouden” we de vraag van de klant wel. Wanneer we dan iemand hebben, die wel geschikt is voor deze job, dan lichten we de bedrijven daar over in, ook al is die job op dat moment al ingevuld.


Sommige klanten hebben zelf soms al een advertentie geplaatst, maar meestal komen ze rechtstreeks naar ons.

Wanneer de bedrijven in het verleden met ons goed hebben samengewerkt, zien we dat ze, wanneer ze een extra persoon nodig hebben, op ons beroep doen. (Lange termijnrelatie)

3. Welke kenmerken heeft de doorsnee klant, KMO? (sector)

We hebben een grote variëteit aan klanten. Ik kan geen bepaalde kenmerken opnoemen van bedrijven die we meer bedienen dan andere.


(niet relevant)

5. Hoe groot zijn jullie klanten, de KMO’s? (omzet, werknemers, winst, ouderdom)

We hebben zowel grote als kleine klanten. Dat gaat van bedrijven met 4 werknemers tot multinationals. Bij de prospectie/ jobopname vragen we wel naar omzet, aantal werknemers, winst… maar we maken geen onderscheid. Ik heb dan ook geen idee van de gemiddelde KMO in ons bestand.


We maken geen onderscheid tussen grote en kleine ondernemingen. We geven ze allemaal dezelfde dienst. Kleinere ondernemingen hebben wel een beperkter budget en weten soms niet zo goed wat interim-werk inhoudt, op dat vlak zijn ze dan misschien wel wat sceptischer.


Neen, we behandelen onze klanten gelijk. We zoeken wel naar de juiste match tussen de werknemer en het bedrijf. Sommige uitzendkrachten zijn meer vertrouwd en hebben meer ervaring in KMO’s. We gaan deze dan ook trachten te plaatsen in een KMO.

8. Wat zijn de doorsnee drijfveren om die taken aan jullie door te geven? (strategische motivatie, kosten motivatie, gebrek aan kennis…)

– tijdsbesparing

– kostenbesparing (zelf advertenties plaatsen, de CVs screenen => dit is zeer tijdsrovend en kostelijk)

– expertise

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXI

– geen eigen personeelsdienst

9. Schommelende diensten qua tijd (cyclisch)? Meer en minder werk, zouden ze daarom uitbesteden?

Bedrijven doen beroep op ons om verschillende redenen:

– teveel werk

– ziekte/ zwangerschap…

– verschillende projecten

– nieuwe functie

10. Wie is jullie contactpersoon bij KMO?

We proberen zoveel mogelijk met de lijnmanager te overleggen, omdat die best de job kan beschrijven, maar we hebben ook contact met de HR-manager (als er één is).

11. Evolutie naar de toekomst toe? Eventueel: waarom?

De evolutie gaat met pieken, samenhangend met de economie. Interim is zeer flexibel, wat een zekerheid is voor het bedrijf en de werkkracht. Ik denk dat interim de schommeling met de economie minder ervaart dan vaste contracten. Op dit moment ervaren we niet dat er minder vraag is, maar het kan misschien nog komen.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXII

Interview HR : loonadministratie

Mevr. Elise Beerens (Securex)

donderdag 27 november 2008, 9u


– loonadministratie en –berekening volgens de laatste sociale & fiscale wetgeving en het arbeidsrecht

– administratie van het personeelsbeheer (kinderbijslag, individuele rekening, tijdskrediet)

– administratieve verplichtingen tegenover publieke en niet-publieke instanties (trimestriële aangifte, externe dienst voor Preventie en bescherming op het werk)

– bijstand en documentatie voor boekhoudkundig personeelsbeheer.

2. Activiteiten die je aanbiedt: wettelijk moeten of ook buiten het wettelijke?

Het grootste deel van de activiteiten zijn wettelijk verplicht. Dit is ook een belangrijke reden waarom ze dit uitbesteden. De wetgeving is heel complex hieromtrent.

3. Wat zijn de doorsnee drijfveren om die taken aan jullie door te geven? (strategische motivatie, kosten motivatie…)

De belangrijkste reden is dat ze deze administratieve taken zelf niet kunnen uitvoeren en ook geen interesse hebben om deze zelf uit te voeren. De meeste KMO’s hebben geen zin om zich te verdiepen in deze “formaliteiten”. Ze laten deze taak liever over aan een sociaal secretariaat dan zijn ze ook zeker dat het correct gebeurd.

Een tweede reden is dat een sociaal secretariaat continuïteit verzekert. Alle verplichtingen zullen steeds tijdig vervuld worden, terwijl in een bedrijf dit niet altijd mogelijk is. Wanneer bijvoorbeeld de verantwoordelijke voor loonsadministratie ziek is, zullen de lonen, RSZ… toch op tijd moeten betaald worden. Er is geen uitstel mogelijk.


Dit is niet echt een reden. Er zijn wel pieken in de diensten. Bijvoorbeeld elke maand bij de betaling van de lonen, wanneer een werknemer in zwangerschapsverlof gaat, bij het regelen van het vakantiegeld…


Neen, loonsadministratie is te complex. 20 à 30 jaar geleden deed de zaakvoerder dit zelf nog omdat de wetgeving toen veel minder complex was, 10 à 15 jaar terug deed de boekhouder soms nog de loonadministratie, maar nu zijn er zodanig veel verplichtingen dat je een echte specialist moet zijn.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXIII

6. Zijn er nog andere activiteiten die de klanten aan jullie overlaten?

Ja, dit is ook het grote voordeel van Securex. We hebben een heel breed aanbod. We zijn niet alleen gespecialiseerd in loonsadministratie, we hebben ook verzekeringspakketten, pensioenfondsen en we helpen bij de opstart van een nieuw bedrijf (advies over ondernemingsvorm, hulp bij administratieve verplichtingen…)

7. Welke kenmerken heeft de doorsnee klant, KMO? (sector…)

Ik kan geen kenmerken opsommen. De klanten zijn heel gevarieerd. Vroeger was het wel zo dat we vooral klanten hadden uit de textielsector, maar dit was omdat Securex zich vooral richtte naar bedrijven uit deze sector.


50/50

9. Hoe groot zijn jullie klanten, de KMO’s? (omzet, werknemers, winst, ouderdom…)

We hebben zowel heel grote als heel kleine, startende en gevestigde ondernemingen. Ons klantenbestand is echt heel gevarieerd.


Neen, integendeel zelfs. Ik heb de indruk dat KMO’s eerder minder sceptisch zijn dan grote bedrijven. Ze zijn opgelucht dat de loonadministratie in goede handen is. Ze denken er zelfs niet aan om dit zelf te doen omdat het zo complex is, terwijl grotere bedrijven vaak wel het vermogen hebben dit zelf uit te voeren.


Ja, bij ondernemingen die we niet kennen spreken we tot 50 werknemers van een KMO. Bij bedrijven die we wel kennen, kijken we naar waar de HR-problematiek zich “bevindt.” Is dit bij de bedrijfsleider dan spreken we over een KMO, is dit bij een HR-verantwoordelijke dan wordt het bedrijf niet aanzien als een KMO. De reden hiervoor is dat wanneer er een HR-verantwoordelijke aanwezig is, het personeelsbeleid meer gestructureerd is en men zich ook meer bezig gaat houden met problematieken bij het personeel (motivatie, opleidingen)

We bieden aan de grote bedrijven (HR solutions) ook een ander pakket van diensten aan dan aan KMO’s (Securex Optimal.)

12. Wie is jullie contactpersoon bij KMO’s?

Ik kan hiervoor niet écht één persoon noemen. Dit kan de bedrijfsleider zijn, de productiemanager, de HR-verantwoordelijke, de meewerkende echtgenote.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXIV

13. Evolutie naar de toekomst toe? (online-diensten…)

Online-diensten zijn inderdaad in opmars. Er zal meer en meer via internet gebeuren, waardoor alles veel sneller zal gaan. Ik vermoed dat er in de toekomst meer en meer “self-service diensten” op het internet te vinden zullen zijn.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXV

Interview Marketing

Mevr. Sabine Janssens (Markomo)

5 november 2008, 15u30


Drie domeinen van activiteiten:

- Marketing: Actieplannen definiëren. Hoe verkoop verhogen? Hoe nieuwe klanten bereiken?

� Hoe op de markt komen?

- Communicatie: Hoe een advertentie, brochure opstellen? Hoe een brief naar klant opstellen?

- Websites: Hoe de bestaande website optimaliseren? Bijvoorbeeld: hoger verschijnen bij zoekrobots.

Elke activiteit kan uitgevoerd worden aan de hand van drie werkwijzen:

- Klankbord: Begeleiding om het marketingbudget van de KMO optimaal te spenderen (bijv. ideeën geven)

- Bijstand: Hoe bepaalde taken uitvoeren? (bijv. hoe een mailing opstellen, verzenden)

- Co-sourcing: marketing-afdeling van KMO’s vervangen (bijvoorbeeld: 1dag per week langskomen om advertenties te versturen, website op te bouwen)


Meestal hebben onze klanten dit in het verleden wel zelf uitgevoerd, maar ze voelen aan dat ze met hun marketingcampagnes onvoldoende resultaat behalen.


- Op groei gerichte KMO’s

- Kritisch staan tegenover huidige werking

- Oudere KMO’s

- 5-500 werknemers (gemiddeld 5-50 werknemers)

- B2B

- Het uitbesteden gebeurt projectmatig, hoewel we graag de frequentie zouden optrekken.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXVI


Vooral productieondernemingen (meestal hoger aantal werknemers).


- Heel divers klantenbestand. (zie vraag 3)

- Oudere bedrijven (vaak bestaan ze al langer dan 20 jaar)

- Met winst en omzet hou ik geen rekening


In de huidige economische situatie zijn alle bedrijven meer sceptisch. Er is slechts een beperkt budget beschikbaar en daar trachten wij zo creatief mogelijk met om te gaan.

Onze sterkte is dan ook dat wij advies geven aan de klant. We kaderen het bedrijf op een hoger strategisch niveau en bekijken dan welke optie voor hem het best zou zijn.

Aangezien wij een dienst verlenen aan een bedrijf is ook vertrouwen heel belangrijk. De persoonlijke relatie moet goed zitten.


Er wordt geen echte grens getrokken want we hebben eigenlijk enkel KMO’s. We weten dat onze sterkte ligt in marketing voor KMO’s. Wanneer een groter bedrijf naar ons toekomt, zullen wij dit aanbod enkel aanvaarden wanneer zij akkoord gaan met onze methode.


- De belangrijkste drijfveer is meestal een “pijnpunt” in de organisatie. Men ervaart een probleem in hun marketinggebeuren, een gebrek aan kennis over marketing. Meestal trachten wij de oplossing voor dit probleem te kaderen binnen hun strategie, maar dit wordt nooit op die manier uitgesproken. Bedrijven zien “strategisch” vaak als iets dat niet praktisch is, niet onmiddellijk bruikbaar.

- Het kostenplaatje is meestal van weinig belang.

- Er is zelden een marketingafdeling aanwezig in het bedrijf. Men benoemt meestal wel een marketingverantwoordelijke, maar deze heeft vaak de nodige opleiding niet gekregen en bezit dan ook de nodige kennis niet.

Extra vraag: Zijn de relaties met de klanten duurzaam?

Aangezien een KMO een beperkt budget heeft, moeten wij het vooral hebben van een zeer uitgebreid klantenbestand. Zoals ik daarjuist al zei, zijn er ook wel klanten waar we bijvoorbeeld 1 keer per week of per maand naartoe gaan om bepaalde marketing- of communicatiezaken op te lossen.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXVII


Niet echt, aangezien we vooral in een B2B omgeving werken. In een B2C omgeving is dit wel zo.

Meestal is de reden van de KMO om bij ons aan te kloppen het gebrek aan kennis. Wanneer de KMO al een tijdje klant is bij ons, zal deze al sneller eens uit tijdsnood taken aan ons doorgeven.


Personen van het bestuur van de KMO (bijvoorbeeld: zaakvoerder)

� vooral omdat wij onze oplossing willen kaderen binnen de strategie

11. Evolutie naar de toekomst toe?

Hierover hebben we een enquête lopen. Ik vermoed dat professionalisering één van de belangrijkste trends is. KMO’s beseffen meer en meer dat marketing en communicatie een vak op zich is, waar ze zeker rekening met moeten houden om te kunnen overleven. Dit is ook duidelijk te zien in het stijgend aantal opleidingen in dit domein.

Uit de praktijk ervaar ik dat wat nu in multinationals omgaat op het marketing- en communicatiegebied, binnen 3 jaar ook -mits wat aanpassingen- zal toepasbaar zijn op de KMO’s.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXVIII

Interview Fleet Management

Mevr. Gudrun Phijs (CIACfleet)

woensdag 26 november, 15u


Oorspronkelijk boden we operationele leasing aan, maar omdat dit een slecht imago heeft bij KMO’s hebben we onze diensten veranderd. Nu bestaan onze diensten uit vier grote activiteiten:

– wagenparkbeheer: car policy (voor grote bedrijven), onderhoud, verzekeringen, brandstofkaarten, ongevallen

– aankoopbeheer: dit hangt samen met het wagenparkbeheer

– leasing: operationeel en financieel

– korte termijn oplossingen, bijvoorbeeld: verhuur op korte termijn


Onze klanten vinden het vaak moeilijk om dit uit te besteden. Veel hangt samen met de financiële situatie van het bedrijf. Vaak worden auto’s gefinancierd met eigen middelen of via de bank. De laatste tijd zien we wel een keerpunt. Wanneer er jonge mensen op de boekhoud- of financieringsafdeling zitten, zien zij ook in dat eigen vermogen gebruikt moet worden om te investeren in activa en niet in auto’s.


Onze klanten bestaan uit enkele multinationals, maar vooral KMO’s. Dit is ook onze doelgroep. Ik kan geen specifieke kenmerken noemen die gemeenschappelijk zijn voor onze klanten.


Dit is 50/50. Het is wel zo dat we aan dienstenondernemingen meer auto’s leasen aangezien er in productieondernemingen meer arbeiders werken en die krijgen geen bedrijfsauto’s.


Zoals ik al zei (zie vraag 3), kan ik geen specifieke kenmerken opnoemen.


Toch wel. Bij kleinere ondernemingen speelt het budget een belangrijke rol. Kleinere bedrijven die geen geld hebben of geen geld kunnen lenen van de bank gaan dan over tot operationele leasing omdat ze niet anders kunnen. Zoals ik al zei, heeft operationele leasing een negatief imago bij KMO’s.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XXXIX


Neen. We behandelen onze klanten gelijk. Voor grote bedrijven helpen we ook mee aan het opstellen van een car policy. Kleinere bedrijven hebben meestal geen car policy.


Vooral tijdswinst speelt hier een belangrijke rol en, zoals ik daarjuist al zei, de financiële middelen in het bedrijf. Uitbesteding van fleet management heeft het imago van duurder te zijn.

9. Schommelende diensten qua tijd (cyclisch)? Meer en minder werk, zouden ze daarom uitbesteden?

Ik denk niet dat dit een reden is tot uitbesteding. Het is wel zo dat we pieken kennen. Bijvoorbeeld: voor de zomer komen veel auto’s de garage binnen voor onderhoud, in de winter krijgen we vaak te kampen met ongevallen (verzekeringen), bij grote evenementen zoals het autosalon, omdat er dan promoties zijn…


Dit is vooral de zaakvoerder. Meestal zijn dit mannen en zij vinden over het algemeen auto’s zeer interessant. We hebben ook contact met het financieel management en de HR-afdeling. De KMO’s hebben geen specifieke verantwoordelijke voor fleet management.

Extra vraag : Is het ook zo dat bedrijven bijvoorbeeld het wagenparkbeheer uitbesteden behalve de verzekeringen? (selectief outsourcen)

Ja dit is zeker zo. Bijvoorbeeld: productieondernemingen kunnen vaak betere verzekeringen krijgen en dit doen ze dan zelf. De rest van het wagenparkbeheer besteden ze dan uit aan ons.

11. Evolutie naar de toekomst toe? Eventueel: waarom?

We zien dat in Oost- en West-Vlaanderen de meeste KMO’s nog altijd via eigen middelen en via de bank financieren. Daarentegen in de verstedelijkte gebieden (Brussel) doen bedrijven meer beroep op leasing. Ik denk dat door de financiële crisis wel meer bedrijven beroep zullen doen op leasing omdat ze bij de bank geen lening krijgen (of aan slechte voorwaarden) of omdat de eigen middelen op zijn.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XL

Appendix 2: Questionnaire

Vragenlijst KMO en Uitbesteding

Vooraleer deze vragenlijst opgestart wordt, geven we u graag nog deze informatie mee: • Met “zelf uitvoeren” bedoelen we dat eigen werknemers van de onderneming deze

activiteit uitvoeren binnen hun normale opdracht. In de vragenlijst noemen we dit “ intern”. Ook indien bv. de boekhouder, personeelsmanager of IT-dienstverlener een zelfstandige is die enkel voor uw onderneming werkt, dan beschouwen we dit als een interne medewerker.

• Met “uitbesteden” bedoelen we dat een extern bedrijf deze activiteit voor u uitvoert. In de vragenlijst noemen we dit “extern”.

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLI

A. Boekhoudtaken: intern of extern of combinatie In dit onderdeel willen we graag weten in welke mate uw onderneming voor de diverse boekhoudtaken een beroep doet op een interne boekhouder en/of een externe boekhouder. Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Voorbeeld 1: Uw onderneming boekt alle facturen zelf in. U vult dan in:

% door interne boekhouder = 100% % door externe boekhouder = 0%

Voorbeeld 2: Uw onderneming boekt alle facturen zelf in, maar de externe boekhouder komt af en toe langs om dit na te kijken en/of correcties aan te brengen. U schat dat ongeveer 80% van het werk intern wordt gedaan en 20% door de externe boekhouder. U vult dan in:


Voorbeeld 3: Uw externe boekhouder boekt alle facturen in. U vult dan in:


(Indien van toepassing, dient voor elke activiteit de som van ‘intern’ en ‘extern’ 100% te zijn)

Hoe schat u de werkverdeling voor volgende boekhoudtaken in?

% intern % extern Niet van toepassing

1a. Inboeken van aankoopfacturen, verkoopfacturen en financiële transacties

1b. Opmaken van een tussentijdse rapportering (vb. tussentijdse resultatenrekening)

1c. Afsluiten van de boekhouding op het einde van het boekjaar (vb. afschrijvingen, voorraadwijzigingen, leningen, overlopende rekeningen)

1d. Opstellen van de jaarrekening op het einde van het boekjaar (balans, resultatenrekening)

1e. Opmaken van de Belgische BTW-aangifte

1f. Opstellen van de aangifte voor de Belgische vennootschapsbelasting

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLII

B. Personeelsbeleid: intern of extern of combinatie In dit onderdeel willen we graag weten in welke mate uw onderneming voor de diverse human resource (HR) taken een beroep doet op een interne personeelsafdeling en/of een externe HR dienstverlener (vb. sociaal secretariaat, rekruteringskantoor…) Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Voorbeeld 1: Uw onderneming voert zelf de rekrutering van tijdelijke werknemers uit. U vult dan in:

% door interne personeelsafdeling = 100% % door externe HR-dienstverlener = 0%

Voorbeeld 2: Uw onderneming voert zelf de rekrutering van tijdelijke werknemers uit, maar de externe HR-dienstverlener helpt u bij een eerste selectie. U schat dat ongeveer 80% van het werk intern wordt gedaan en 20% door de externe HR-dienstverlener. U vult dan in:


Voorbeeld 3: Uw externe HR-dienstverlener voert de rekrutering van tijdelijke werknemers volledig uit. U vult dan in:



Hoe schat u de werkverdeling voor volgende HR-taken in?

% intern

% extern

Niet van toepassing

2a. Opstellen van functiebeschrijvingen

2b. Rekrutering en selectie van uitvoerend personeel

2c. Rekrutering en selectie van tijdelijke werknemers (uitzendkrachten)

2d. Rekrutering en selectie van leidinggevend personeel

2e. Loonadministratie

2f. Opleiding geven

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLIII

C. ICT: intern of extern of combinatie In dit onderdeel willen we graag weten in welke mate uw onderneming voor de diverse informaticataken een beroep doet op een interne IT-afdeling en/of een externe IT-dienstverlener. Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Voorbeeld 1: Uw onderneming voert zelf het onderhoud van de hardware uit. U vult dan in:

% door interne IT-afdeling = 100% % door externe IT-dienstverlener = 0%

Voorbeeld 2: Uw onderneming voert zelf een gedeelte van het onderhoud van de hardware uit, maar de externe IT-dienstverlener komt af en toe langs om de hardware na te kijken en/of herstellingen uit te voeren. U schat dat ongeveer 80% van het werk intern wordt gedaan en 20% door de externe IT-dienstverlener. U vult dan in:


Voorbeeld 3: Uw externe IT-dienstverlener voert het onderhoud uit. U vult dan in:



Hoe schat u de werkverdeling voor volgende IT-taken in? %

intern %

extern Niet van

toepassing 3a. Aankoop en installatie van hardware

3b. Onderhoud van hardware

3c. Aankoop en installatie van software

3d. Aanpassen van de software aan de bedrijfscontext

3e. Onderhoud van software

3f. Ontwikkeling van website

3g. Onderhoud van website

3h. Helpdesk

3i. Beveiliging van het netwerk

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLIV

D. Fleet management: intern of extern of combinatie In dit onderdeel willen we graag weten in welke mate uw onderneming voor het beheer van het wagenpark een beroep doet op een interne medewerker en/of een extern bedrijf gespecialiseerd in fleet management (vb. leasingmaatschappij, fleet management maatschappij). Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Voorbeeld 1: Uw onderneming beheert zelf het wagenpark. U vult dan in:

% door interne medewerker = 100% % door externe dienstverlener = 0%

Voorbeeld 2: Uw onderneming beheert een gedeelte van het wagenpark en een externe dienstverlener gespecialiseerd in fleet management beheert het overige gedeelte. U schat dat ongeveer 80% van het werk intern wordt gedaan en 20% door de externe dienstverlener. U vult dan in:


Voorbeeld 3: Een externe dienstverlener gespecialiseerd in fleet management beheert het wagenpark. U vult dan in:



Hoe schat u de werkverdeling voor het fleet management in?

% intern

% extern

Niet van toepassing

4a. Aankoop van personenwagens

4b. Aankoop van bedrijfsvoertuigen

4c. Opvolging van onderhoud, verzekeringen en brandstofkaarten voor personenwagens

4d. Opvolging van onderhoud, verzekeringen en brandstofkaarten voor bedrijfswagens

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLV

E. Algemene vragen over de bedrijfsleider Indien meerdere bedrijfsleiders, neem dan de oudste bedrijfsleider in gedachten bij het antwoorden van deze vragen. 5. Geef aan in welke mate de huidige bedrijfsleider werkervaring heeft in elk van de volgende

domeinen.

Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Gebruik volgende antwoordschaal: 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen ervaring weinig ervaring heel veel ervaring

(omcirkel telkens het best passende antwoord)

a. Personeelsbeleid 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

b. Informatietechnologie 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

c. Accounting en financiën 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

d. Marketing en verkoop 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

e. Productie 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

f. Wagenparkbeheer 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

6. Geef aan in welke mate de huidige bedrijfsleider interesse heeft in elk van de volgende

domeinen.

Er zijn geen goede of slechte antwoorden. Gebruik volgende antwoordschaal: 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen interesse weinig interesse heel veel interesse

(omcirkel telkens het best passende antwoord)

a. Personeelsbeleid 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

b. Informatietechnologie 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

c. Accounting en financiën 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

d. Marketing en verkoop 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

e. Productie 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

f. Wagenparkbeheer 0 1 2 3 4 5 geen idee

7. Wat is de leeftijd van de huidige bedrijfsleider? …………………………………….

8. Wat is het geslacht van de huidige bedrijfsleider? Man / Vrouw (omcirkel wat past)

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLVI

9. Hoeveel jaar oefent de bedrijfsleider zijn/haar huidige functie uit? …………………..

10. Wat is het hoogste opleidingsniveau van de huidige bedrijfsleider?

o Secundair onderwijs o Hoger onderwijs van het korte type o Hoger onderwijs van het lange type o Universitair o Post universitair o Andere: …………………………… o Geen idee

11. In welk domein situeerden zich de studies van de huidige bedrijfsleider?

o Sociale wetenschappen (bv. psychologie, pedagogie, politieke en sociale wetenschappen…)

o Exacte en toegepaste wetenschappen (bv. wiskunde, chemie, fysica, ingenieurswetenschappen, …)

o Economische wetenschappen (bv. accounting, marketing…) o Informatica o Talen o Technisch (bv. elektriciteit, sanitair, automechanica, ….) o Andere: ………………………. o Geen idee

12. Wat is uw functie?

o Bedrijfsleider o Financieel directeur o Hoofd van de boekhouding o Andere: …………………………

Outsourcing paths of accounting by SMEs XLVII

F. Algemene vragen over de onderneming 13. Sinds wanneer bestaat uw onderneming al?

Sinds………………………….

14. Tot welke sector behoort uw onderneming? Meerdere antwoorden mogelijk.

o Productie van goederen voor de finale consument (Business-to-Consumer) o Productie van goederen voor andere bedrijven (Business-to-Business) o Bouw o Groot- en kleinhandel o Distributie en transport o Catering en horeca o Verlenen van financiële diensten o Verlenen van diensten, andere dan financiële o Andere:………………………………

15. Hoeveel werknemers (in voltijdse equivalenten) telt uw onderneming momenteel? ………………………. werknemers

16. Hoeveel bedroeg de jaaromzet van uw onderneming in 2008?

o < 1.000.000 euro o 1.000.001 – 2.000.000 euro o 2.000.001 – 4.000.000 euro o 4.000.001 – 6.000.000 euro o 6.000.001 – 10.000.000 euro o > 10.000.000 euro

o Geen idee

17. Hoeveel bedroeg het balanstotaal van uw onderneming in 2008?

o < 500.000 euro o 500.001 – 1.000.000 euro o 1.000.001 – 3.000.000 euro o 3.000.001 – 5.000.000 euro o 5.000.001 – 10.000.000 euro o 10.000.001 – 20.000.000 euro o > 20.000.000 euro

o Geen idee

18. Is uw onderneming een familiebedrijf (in termen van eigendomstructuur)?

0 Ja 0 Neen 0 Geen idee

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