Companies worldwide are still and increasingly outsourcing parts of their business processes. But although business process outsourcing is considered by companies worldwide, not all initiatives to outsource business processes are successful. Approximately 70% of all companies that outsource in the end are dissatisfied with one or more aspects of the result. And that has not improved over the past years¿ This thesis focuses on the question why western companies still focus on outsourcing their business processes to other countries and on the related chances and risks. Also, the effects of country specific characteristics on those (dis)advantages of business process outsourcing are described, compared and analized in this thesis. This thesis will put a strong focus on India. But as a matter of fact, many, if not all, findings are also true for many other countries, such as the Philippines, Indonesia or countries in Eastern Europe or Southern America.