Shared service centers in the Central and Eastern Europe: Theoretical framework

Abstract

Shared services centers (SSC) are widely used by multinational corporations as a part of their business strategies. The attention of researchers in international business has increased along with the growth of SSCs and this topic is currently being studied by a number of authors. In this article we focused on the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to construct a structured evaluation of the extremely dispersed literature on SSCs in this region. A meta-analysis of the relevant literature sources has been the fundamental technique employed in this paper based on the analysis of the WoS, Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, and Emerald Insights databases. The results show that Poland is the most researched country, with Central Europe being studied more thoroughly than Eastern Europe. Relevant literature study shows that the researchers systematically investigated the motivations of foreign companies to create SSCs in CEE and focused frequently on human resources management part of their activities. They use a variety of techniques in their articles, including both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Based on this study, the authors of this paper formulate the conclusions and outline possible future prospects of the research of this phenomenon.