Business Segment Information - Financial Information by Reportable Segment (Parenthetical) (Details) $ in Thousands	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) Customer	Dec. 31, 2014 USD ($) Customer	Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($) Customer
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenue	$ 1,267,225	$ 1,345,154	$ 1,368,389
Customer Concentration Risk \| United States
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenue	528,000	565,900	589,600
Customer Concentration Risk \| China
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenue	$ 143,400	$ 144,700	$ 147,300
Customer Concentration Risk \| Total Net Revenues \| ScanSource Communications
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Concentration risk percentage	20.00%	17.00%	16.00%
Number of customer partners contributing more than 10% of total revenues \| Customer	1	1	1
Customer Concentration Risk \| Accounts Receivable \| ScanSource Communications
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Concentration risk percentage	20.00%	19.00%
Number of customer accounted for more than 10% of gross accounts receivable \| Customer	1	1

Number of customers accounting for more than ten percent of accounts receivable.

No definition available.

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- Definition

Number of customers accounting for more than ten percent of revenue.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

For an entity that discloses a concentration risk in relation to quantitative amount, which serves as the "benchmark" (or denominator) in the equation, this concept represents the concentration percentage derived from the division.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 18
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51801978&loc=d3e6351-108592

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 20
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=49121117&loc=d3e13531-108611

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 20
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51801978&loc=d3e6404-108592

Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 21
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=49121117&loc=d3e13537-108611

+ Details

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- Definition

Total revenue from sale of goods and services rendered during the reporting period, in the normal course of business, reduced by sales returns and allowances, and sales discounts.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 225
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-03.1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=26872669&loc=d3e20235-122688

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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