Shared service centre organisations and quantitative evidence on a reduction in administration costs: an umbrella review

Over the last four decades, the shared service centres idea has emerged as a predominant solution to reorganise the support processes of companies worldwide. A stream of academic literature emphasises their potential for ambitious cost savings, shaping the impression that the 'holy grail' for managing companies' administrative costs has been found. However, quantitative evidence based on publicly available financial data is scarce. With the assistance of an umbrella review, this article aims for a structured evaluation of secondary and tertiary SSC literature in that regard. The analysis of 22 publications confirmed initial perceptions. Quantitative data evaluating the impact of SSC organisations on firms administrative cost structure are absent. Furthermore, heterogeneous research procedures yield diverse outputs, deviating from established standards for structured literature reviews. The gathered results substantiate the need for additional investigations at the primary research level, to finalise evidence search and devise a research agenda to address identified gaps.