The effects of absorptive capacity,knowledge sourcing strategy,and alliance forms on firm performance

This paper explores the relationship between absorptive capacity, knowledge sourcing strategy, alliance forms, and firm performance. Based on the literature, the concept of a knowledge sourcing strategy in alliance contexts is proposed, which can be categorised into two types: a knowledge internalisation strategy and a knowledge access strategy. From an organisational learning perspective, it is argued that a firm's absorptive capacity has a positive influence on a knowledge internalisation strategy, and accordingly a firm's choices of alliance forms are also influenced. R&D performance is also included in the theoretical model in order to generate further managerial implications. Instead of using conventional regression methods, structural equation modelling (SEM) is adopted to conduct path analysis, as SEM is well suited in verifying multiple-dependent models. The arguments advanced are supported by empirical analysis of a sample of 148 alliances.     

离岸IT服务外包发包方选择承接商的影响因素研究——基于上海地区的实证分析

本文基于上海地区,利用与本土IT外包承接企业有业务往来的跨国公司(发包方)数据,对离岸IT服务外包发包方选择承接商的影响因素进行研究。实证分析结果显示,承接企业的项目运营交付能力、国际市场品牌竞争力、行业知识和领域经验、技术和创新能力、风险管控能力等对发包方选择服务外包承接商有显著影响,跨文化沟通和协调、成本竞争力的影响不显著。本土服务外包承接企业可以根据这些因素有针对性地提升其在国际接包市场上的竞争力。     

中印两国IT服务外包国际竞争力比较研究

为了对中印两国的IT服务外包的竞争力进行比较全面地分析和评价,从两国IT业发展的现状、IT服务外包的现状进行比较,并运用贸易竞争优势指数（TCI）、显性比较优势指数（RCA）和IT服务贸易开放度（SO）三种指标体系对两国的IT服务外包业进行定量的分析。得出结论,印度IT业由于国内市场需求不足且增长缓慢,依赖于承接国外的离岸外包,而中国的IT业服务外包多是在国内进行的在岸外包。因此,中国要发展自己的IT业,必须立足国内市场,结合自身实际情况,制定合理的发展战略,积极发展自己的IT离岸外包。     

企业IT外包绩效研究评述

目前,IT外包合作的较低的满意度已使人们日渐意识到提升和保障IT外包绩效的重要性,而对IT外包绩效的研究却是一个薄弱环节。为此,从IT外包战略决策与IT外包执行过程管理对IT绩效的影响以及IT外包的绩效评价与控制三个方面总结国内外学者不同的研究视角,并对相关研究成果进行评述。     

关于企业信息化建设起步阶段运维外包的思考

针对信息化建设处于起步阶段的企业如何进行有效地运维外包的问题,从运维外包的必要性、运维工作四个发展阶段、明确外包工作界面、防止外包的负面影响及选择合适的外包服务提供商等等方面进行阐述,找到运维外包的解决办法。     

Managing cross-border knowledge transfer for innovation: An introduction to the special issue

This introduction to the special issue maps the extant research on managing crossborder knowledge for innovation and classifies it into four clusters: knowledge spillovers and location, international alliances and R&D networks, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity, and learning organization and capabilities. The eleven articles that compose the special issue are introduced, and a future agenda for international business research is proposed.     

How do threshold firms sustain corporate entrepreneurship? The role of boards and absorptive capacity

As companies move from one stage of their cycle to the next, they often have to revamp their skills and build innovative capabilities to survive, achieve profitability, and stimulate growth. Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) activities give these firms a foundation for building and exploiting these capabilities. In turn, stimulating and sustaining CE requires the infusion of resources and new knowledge into the firm's operations, using multiple external sources. In this paper, we highlight the importance of boards of directors and absorptive capacity for gaining access to varied and current knowledge that enriches CE. We suggest that boards and absorptive capacity complement each other in fueling CE activities. Further, boards can sometimes substitute for poor absorptive capacity and vice versa, influencing the intensity of CE activities. Managing these complementarities (or substitutions) is crucial for sustaining CE initiatives and creating value from them.     

Fostering integration through HRM practices: An empirical examination of absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer in cross-border M&As

Transfer of knowledge-based resources from acquirers to the acquired units has been ubiquitously emphasized as an important driver of post-acquisition integration. Equally emphasized is the importance of recipient unit’s absorptive capacity for the success of knowledge transfer and the facilitating role of HRM practices in developing absorptive capacity. In this paper, we integrate different streams of research on post-acquisition integration, knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity and HRM practices. Different from most past research, we pay attention theoretically and empirically to the multi-dimensional nature of both knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity. We test our hypotheses on a sample of acquired Chinese subsidiaries of 181 multinational corporations from seven countries. We find that successful inflow and implementation of knowledge require the acquired unit to have distinct types of capabilities each of which can be developed by a specific HRM practice. These results contribute literature by recognizing absorptive capacity as a manageable capability and identifying how different components of this capability could be developed by specific HRM practices. Furthermore, our results shed light on human side of M&As by examining how companies can foster post-acquisition integration by fine-tuning the absorptive capacity of acquired units.     

信息技术国际服务外包东道国选择影响因素实证研究

服务外包是国际分工深入发展的产物,它不仅为发达国家提供了配置全球资源的渠道,也使发展中国家进一步融入全球生产和服务体系。本文选取41个东道国的数据对影响信息技术国际服务外包东道国选择的因素进行了实证分析。研究显示:劳动力成本、劳动力素质、信息技术基础设施状况以及东道国的经济发展水平对信息技术国际服务外包东道国选择决策具有显著影响,文化差异程度无显著影响。最后在此基础上结合中国的现实情况提出增强我国成为服务外包东道国吸引力的措施。     

Assessing Organizational Adoption of Information Systems Outsourcing

The information systems outsourcing (ISO) field continues to grow, as organizations consistently seek improvements in IT activities. The global scope of outsourcing participation and growth leads to gaps of knowledge related to the contextual factors that influence ISO adoption. Using the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, this study identifies and contextualizes the determinants of ISO adoption. Data collected from 261 firms suggest that relative advantage, firm size, top management support, and competitive pressure are the main determinants of ISO. This study highlights the importance of assessing ISO using the TOE theoretical lens, and offers replication of prior results, the lack of which is a growing concern in social science research.     

Improving the absorptive capacity through unlearning context: an empirical investigation in hospital-in-the-home units

The Spanish healthcare system has undergone important changes, particularly in the development of new homecare services. In practice, however, results have been mixed. Some homecare services have been successful, but implementation failures are common and the intended patients are frequently reluctant to use the homecare services. A possible explanation for efficiency and effectiveness gaps of services provided by hospital-in-the-home units (HHUs) may relate to the advantages and disadvantages of the knowledge processes that these units highlight as a result of their different structural properties. This study examines the impact of an unlearning (forgetting) context on the HHU's ability to challenge basic beliefs and to implement processes that are explicitly or tacitly helpful in the reception of new ideas (absorptive capacity). These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 54 doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 HHUs. The results show that the unlearning context plays a key role in managing the tension between potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity.     

The role of change management in implementing the offshore outsourcing business model: a processual view

By means of the case study approach, the nature and process of organizational change related to the implementation of offshore IT outsourcing and the effectiveness of approaches used to manage this change were examined in three information systems departments of a multinational pharmaceutical company. The findings reveal that a combination of contextual factors influenced the adoption and use of offshore outsourcing. Organizational factors involved in the diagnosis and planning as well as implementation phases that contribute to or prevent the successful management of change are identified, and the most commonly reported effects of change resulting from offshore outsourcing are also analyzed.     

The effect of experience and absorptive capacity on foreign market knowledge

Learning about foreign markets often occurs through collaboration with other firms who have this knowledge. In this paper, we focus on one aspect of foreign market knowledge, which is the knowledge a partner in a dyadic relationship, has of the other partner and of their respective business network relationships. The concept ‘absorptive capacity’ [Admin. Sci. Q. 35 (1990) 128] is used to describe the firm’s ability to use its prior related knowledge and diverse background to identify the value of new information and to develop this into something creative. We develop and empirically test a model of how depth and diversity of experience affect absorptive capacity, and how this absorptive capacity affects the way a lack of foreign market knowledge is perceived as an obstacle in carrying out the ongoing business activity.The results show that the lack of foreign market knowledge in the ongoing business is determined both by the firm’s absorptive capacity generated in dyadic relationships with foreign customers and the customer’s network. The dyadic and network absorptive capacities, however, appear to be used differently in the ongoing business. Dyadic absorptive capacity seems to decrease the lack of foreign market knowledge, whereas customer network absorptive capacity seems to increase it.     

Building subsidiary local responsiveness: (When) does the directionality of intrafirm knowledge transfers matter?

The present study focuses on effects of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities—knowledge transfer and reverse knowledge transfer—and absorptive capacity on local responsiveness. We also examine whether absorptive capacity, shared values, and psychological safety, representing constituents of the motivation-opportunity-ability model of behavior, moderate relationships of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities with responsiveness. Based on a sample of 173 Chinese subsidiaries, the results suggest knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity facilitate local responsiveness. Shared values moderates positively and absorptive capacity negatively, the relationship between knowledge transfer and responsiveness. Psychological safety strengthens the link between reverse knowledge transfer and local responsiveness.     

企业采用战略性信息科技外包意向研究

信息科技的飞速发展,使企业认识到企业对信息技术的需求与缺乏,为了取得这方面的技术,信息科技采用外包的形式日益增多。随着企业外包业务的增加,外包双方逐渐发展成为紧密合作模式,建立了长期的伙伴关系。     

The Impact of Outsourcing Strategies on Information Systems Capabilities in the Hotel Industry

This work analyses the strategy of outsourcing information systems and information technology (IS/IT), considering the different activities comprising the IS/IT area. The literature on IS contains numerous works that analyse outsourcing, very few of which examine the relationship with the different types of capabilities in the IS/IT area and their strategic value. Most works centre on the motives for, and advantages of, the strategy of outsourcing the IS/IT area, while scant attention has been paid to the study of the long-term consequences of outsourcing. This work develops a theoretical model which is applied to the hotel sector and which shows that hotels following a more intensive outsourcing strategy develop fewer managerial capabilities related to knowledge in the management of IS/IT resources. This negative relationship extends to other types of capabilities typical of the area and to certain organisational capabilities. A negative relationship is also observed between the level of outsourcing and the strategic value given to the IS/IT area, which may lead to a lower potential for the development of competitive advantage.     

How to Steer the IT Outsourcing Provider

IT executives entering into information technology (IT) outsourcing arrangements seek various strategic, economic, and technological benefits. However, although several cases of IT outsourcing are considered successful, cases of failure can also be observed. Problems and challenges associated with IT outsourcing often not only relate to the strategic decision whether or not to outsource, but to the operational level as well. Especially organizations with little experience of implementing larger IT outsourcing programs face problems with the steering of external outsourcing providers. In this paper, we propose a reference framework that structures the required processes for an effective steering of IT outsourcing relationships. The research is based on the design science paradigm in information systems research. In a first step, we derive a framework from related literature and knowledge in this particular area. We then undertake extensive fieldwork, including expert interviews and field studies to evaluate our framework and to develop it further. The suggested framework proves to be a viable instrument to support the systematic analysis of current processes and the definition of suitable target processes for the steering of IT outsourcing programs. This paper??s primary contribution therefore lies in providing an applicable instrument for practitioners as well as in extending the existing body of knowledge on IT outsourcing governance.     

跨国外包对接包方技术创新能力的影响研究

文章借鉴Antraes(2005)中间品选择模型,结合跨国公司国际化生产的动态特征构建南北方国家之间中间品生产合作的模型,从北方国家技术转移与接包方技术吸收能力建设两个视角探索接包方发展创新能力的因素,提出外包项目动态升级情境下接包方获得的创新激励效应。在此基础上,论文通过回归分析模型检验外包生产对当地创新能力的影响,结论表明,各地承接外包的出口对当地创新活动有显著的正效应。     

Outsourcing: Current and future trends

Highlighted are two reasons for outsourcing: cost and focus on the core competencies of the enterprise. Surveying U.S., U.K., and Continental Europe companies concerning current and future outsourcing trends positions outsourcing as a prominent strategic lever. Achieving “best‐of‐breed” practice is predicted to occur through new technology. Also, human resources and IT outsourcing will become more prominent. The results strongly indicate that partnership alliances and performance‐driven contracts will become as important as the current preferred, trusted supplier relationship. Keiretsulike, horizontal linkages will be required to realize scale and competency advantages from future outsourcing arrangements. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.