Offshore printing: a study on the printing industry in Ghana.

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Date
August, 2016
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Abstract
This study examines offshore printing of print products and services by Ghana Book Publishers Association and Ghana Printers and Paper Converters Association in the book industry, at the expense of the Ghanaian Printing industry. Publishing houses now send their works to printing houses offshore depriving the local printers of business expansion and overall industry growth. The study serves to provide a critical and analytical perspective on the state and impact of offshoring. The study is aimed at finding out whether the current level of offshoring is causing a threat or an advantage to the growth of the Local Printing industry. It also details the merits and demerits of offshore printing and assesses the impact on the industry. The research methodology used for the study was Mixed method. The respondents were made up of the top Managers of the Publishing and Printing houses in both Kumasi and Accra. Interviews were also conducted. The total sample size for the study was 127 Printing and Publishing houses. The questionnaires retrieved from the respondents were 96; 20 representing 20.8% from Publishing houses whilst the remaining 76 representing 79.2% from the Printing houses. The results showed that 3% and 80% of Printers and Publishers respectively print their jobs offshore. Within the last 6 years (2010-2015), majority of publishers representing 56.25% have shown interest in printing offshore which shows a growth in offshore printing over the period. Printing offshore has some negative impact on the growth and at the same time, skills development of workers in the Ghanaian Printing Industry. Notable among them are increase in unemployment rate, redundancy, job insecurity, etc. Effective ways to mitigate offshore printing and its negative impacts was suggested (e.g. full printing of educational materials should be undertaken by publishers locally and tax waiver on printing materials be given to local printers) to curb offshoring and help grow the Local Printing industry.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Publishing Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in publishing studies Faculty of Art College of Art and Built Environment
Keywords
Printing industry, Printing, Offshore printing, Outsourcing
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