What is global sourcing?
Global sourcing is sourcing of raw materials, technical know-how, labour, machineries, etc. from many countries other then the home country. Nowadays, global sourcing is better understood when the word outsourcing is used instead. For instance, It implies a apparel co. having market in India, is sourcing tops from Bangkok, Belts from Italy, Denim jeans from China, & so on & so forth. Whereas a global co. is that co. which is having manufacturing facilities in many countries, markets in many others, etc. Example can be Nestle, McDonalds, etc. The concept of global sourcing is usually used in virtual organizations, where the main co. does what it does best. And outsources everything else. The main focus is on their core competency & everything else is outsource. For instance, take a co. whose core competency is marketing of computers in India, so this co. wont go for manufacturing of PC's, arranging for logistics, collection of payments, assembling of PC's, etc. What this co. will do is, they will buy computers from the best PC manufacturing co., for payment collection it will hand it over to some collection agent/bank (factor agent), for logistics it can appoint the best - like FedEx or UPS etc & so on. So these co. are able to provide the best value to the customer. Similarly, is the case in Internet organizations. Best case would be that of DELL (www.dell.com). I hope i m able to clear myself.