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Human Sustainability in Software Development

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Abstract

Human thriving and outsourcing can go hand in hand. This research aims to outline outsourcing approaches for facilitating human thriving by conducting a semi-systematic literature review. We identified three outsourcing approaches that consider corporate social responsibility: impact sourcing, ethical outsourcing, and Fair Trade Software. The aim of this research is to understand the effect of these approaches on marginalized people, and the benefits and challenges for client organizations. The following main conclusions are drawn. First, impact sourcing provides marginalized people with the opportunity to generate an income, to develop themselves professionally, and to build a social circle. In some cases it can generate harmful impacts such as stress. Second, the benefits of impact sourcing for client organizations compared to traditional outsourcing are reduced costs, reduced employee turnover, improved corporate social responsibility, and new chances for growth. Third, ethical outsourcing protects brand image and can improve stakeholder management. However, the extra investments required may reduce competitiveness. Last, Fair Trade Software is a relatively new model, and therefore the benefits and challenges have yet to be assessed. A potential benefit is capacity building by knowledge transfer and network strengthening. Currently some of the biggest challenges are the lack of audits, caused by a lack of resources, and increasing the adoption rate of this outsourcing model.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Joost Dijkers for his contributions to the semi-systematic literature review on impact sourcing and ethical outsourcing. We would also like to thank Andy Haxby, Olav Verhoeven, Huseyin Aksoy, Sander Paulus, and Louis Lomans for their contributions on Fair Trade Software and cross-border development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Vijanti Ramautar, Sietse Overbeek & Sergio España

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  1. Vijanti Ramautar
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  2. Sietse Overbeek
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  3. Sergio España
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Correspondence to Vijanti Ramautar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Alarcos Research Group, Institute of Technologies and Information Systems, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Ciudad Real, Spain

    Coral Calero

  2. Alarcos Research Group, Institute of Technologies and Information Systems, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Ciudad Real, Spain

    Mª Ángeles Moraga

  3. Alarcos Research Group, Institute of Technologies and Information Systems, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Ciudad Real, Spain

    Mario Piattini

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Ramautar, V., Overbeek, S., España, S. (2021). Human Sustainability in Software Development. In: Calero, C., Moraga, M.Á., Piattini, M. (eds) Software Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69970-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69970-3_14

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