Competitive pressures affecting bottom-line profit margins have risen dramatically in today’s global economy. As a result, an increasing number of U.S. companies have turned to outsourcing of goods and services to reduce manufacturing and operational costs.

Although international supply chain outsourcing has long been the arena of large, established international corporations, research suggests that many U.S. companies that fall into the category of small to medium-sized enterprises are also building vast, international supply chains to compete against their larger counterparts.

In many cases, the focus on operational cost saving vs. attention to quality and supply chain compliance has seen more and more companies looking for supplier opportunities in emerging and fast-growing markets. Notably, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey report released in 2011 indicates that 76 percent of companies dealing with these markets cited corruption as the prime factor of noncompliance.

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