THE BPO COUNTRY COMPETENCY MODEL (CCM): A MODEL ESTABLISHING THE RELATIONSHIP AND THE DEGREE OF SIGNIFICANCE OF FACTORS THAT DRIVE COMPETENCE IN THE BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING (BPO) BEN OCRA & BENJAMIN AGGREY NTIM Open University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumbur, Malaysia University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana ABSTRACT The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector is one of the fastest growing and important business sectors in the world. The sector provides a balance for the management and development of businesses. This paper aimed at examining factors that impact competence in the BPO sector. The study involved a survey and quantitative research designs in which snowball sampling was applied in selecting 320 respondents across 5 countries. The Multiple Linear Regression was used for data analysis in the context of SPSS. Findings indicated a significant positive relationship between competence and human resource attractiveness, financial attractiveness, BPO company characteristics and political environment. The model developed by the author explained 66% of variance in competence. Therefore, competence can be expedited in the BPO sector by enhancing human resource attractiveness, financial attractiveness, BPO company characteristics and political environment. KEYWORDS: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Country Competency Model, Factors, Competence INTRODUCTION The relevance and impact of the globe’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector is not far -fetched. The basis of this assertion is a reflection of the continuous demand and interest of individuals and organizations to outsources services in various fields of business, academia, information technology, media, insurance, telecommunication and many others. Additionally, the sector has served as a huge source of financial enhancement and development for a good number of individuals and companies (Dowouna, 2011). Undoubtedly therefore, such a sector needs critical attention and analysis for the maximization of its growth and impact on the local economy. The business process outsourcing is not a recent development of the business sector, and its acknowledgement in the business and academic fields is increasingly popular, with human resource, information technology and research being the leading areas for business outsourcing. At the international level, some countries such as Philippines, India, China, Egypt and United Kingdom have made great progress in the BPO sector with regards to quality of services and productivity of BPO companies (A.T. Kearney, 2011). Relatively, not much of progress is made in third-world African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria, though Ghana is perceived one of the best BPO destinations in Africa. Growth in the BPO sector is influenced by service quality of companies from which services are outsourced, which is in turn driven by their competence (Dowouna, 2011; Bharadwaj & Saxena, 2010). This means that competence is the basic factor that must be considered and enhanced for a progressive sector in terms of business process outsourcing. Unfortunately, many individuals and firms are not able to ensure substantial competence in the BPO sector. The situation is as a result of the fact that they lack in-depth knowledge of factors that determine competence. It is said that African countries and other countries that lag behind in the global BPO sector can only vitalize their standing by considering International Journal of Computer Science Engineering and Information Technology Research (IJCSEITR) ISSN 2249-6831 Vol. 3, Issue 4, Oct 2013, 113-120 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.