Service design from staffing to outsourcing

The term outsourcing has become a conventional means of describing anything associated with the transaction of services that enables client organisations to blur core activities and thereby reduce their internal workforce and costs. The main objective of this study is confirming a gap in detailed and spe-cific reviews of formats and economic transactions through non-standard forms of employment, namely in a service design model from Staffing to Outsourcing. The literature review was performed using text mining and topic modelling techniques to group relevant topics and decreases the likelihood of human bias, while bringing robustness to the analysis. The results are reflected in a conceptual state of the art diagram that will serve as a basis to new discussions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Globalisation of Knowledge Production and Regional Innovation Policy: Supporting Specialized Hubs in the Bangalore Software Industry

This paper is concerned with the changing role of regional innovation systems and regional policies in supporting the transition of indigenous firms in developing countries from competing on low costs towards becoming knowledge providers in global value chains. Special attention is paid to policies supporting the emergence and development of the regional innovation system in this transition process. Regional innovation systems in developing countries have very recently started to be conceptualised as specialized hubs in global innovation and production networks (Asheim, B., Coenen, L., Vang-Lauridsen, J.,2007. Face to- face, buzz and knowledge bases: socio-spatial implications for learning,innovation and innovation policy. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 25(5), 655–670; Chaminade, C., Vang, J., 2006a. Innovation policy for small andmedium size SMEs in Asia: an innovation systems perspective. In:Yeung, H. (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Asian Business. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham; Maggi, C., 2007. The salmon farming and processing cluster in Southern Chile. In: Pietrobello, C., Rabellotti, R. (Eds.), Upgrading and Governance in Clusters and Value Chains in Latin America. Harvard University Press). A specialized hub refers to a node in a global value chain that mainly undertakes one or a few of the activities required for the production and development of a given good or service or serves a particular segment of the global market. In global value chains, firms in developing countries have traditionally been responsible for the lowest added-value activities. However, a few emerging regional innovation systems in developing countries are beginning to challenge this scenario by rapidly upgrading in the value chain. There is, however, still only a poorly developed understanding of how the system of innovation emerges and evolves to support this transition process and what the role of regional innovation policy is in building the regional conditions that support indigenous small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in this transition process. This paper aims at reducing this omission by analyzing the co-evolution of the strategies of indigenous SMEs and the regional innovation system of Bangalore (India).Regional innovation systems; Evolution; Globalization of innovation; Software industry; Bangalore

Exploring capability maturity models and relevant practices as solutions addressing information technology service offshoring project issues

This research investigated Capability Maturity Models (CMM) / Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) best practices and their effects on managing and mitigating critical issues associated with offshore development. Using a web-based survey, data was collected from 451 Information Technology and software development firms in the US. The results of the analysis show that IT companies applying CMM/CMMI models have fewer issues associated with IT offshoring. When US IT companies utilizing and incorporating different practices from TSP and People-CMM into CMMI-DEV/SVC and CMMI-ACQ, they have fewer offshoring issues related to language barriers and cultural differences

Work, Culture and Sociality in the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry: A Sociological Study

This report presents the key findings of a sociological study of the Indian information technology workforce that was carried out over a period of more than two years, between November 2003 and March 2006, in Bangalore and in three countries in Europe. The objective of the research project, entitled ‘Indian IT Professionals in India and Europe: Work, Culture, and Transnationalism’, was to document the social and cultural transformations that have been set in motion by the rapid growth of the IT and ITES industries in India, and through this to shed some light on wider processes of globalisation. The study focused on the creation of the IT workforce; the new forms of work, employment, organisation, and management, and the new cultures of work that have emerged in this industry, and on the transformations in lifestyle, sociality and identity that are taking place within this new global workforce

A systemic landscaping of the software industry of an emerging economy : a case of the Western Cape, South Africa

Includes bibliographical references.This study is an attempt to address that need focusing on Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. Making use of case study research strategy, the research aimed at identifying the major pressure points in the software industry, their interactions (impact on each other) as well as impact on the overall industry. Data was collected through interviews with industry leaders operating in the province, analysed and synthesised abductively making use of systems thinking techniques to generate key insights for the industry. Research findings reveal an increasing frustration amongst businesses in dealing with a continuous decline of quality and quantity of software related skills, tension from competitors (mostly India) and absence of a nationwide or even regional software strategy which is an outcome of lack of leadership in the sector. The study concluded by highlighting the need for the government to take leadership and systemically organise the collective efforts of industry stakeholders such as business, academia, as well as NGOs into addressing the identified challenges

Sustainable Prosperity in the New Economy?: Business Organization and High-Tech Employment in the United States

Lazonick explores the origins of the new era of employment insecurity and income inequality, and considers what governments, businesses, and individuals can do about it. He also asks whether the United States can refashion its high-tech business model to generate stable and equitable economic growth.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1029/thumbnail.jp

The Electronic Silk Road: How the Web Binds the World in Commerce

On the ancient Silk Road, treasure-laden caravans made their arduous way through deserts and mountain passes, establishing trade between Asia and the civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean. Today’s electronic Silk Roads ferry information across continents, enabling individuals and corporations anywhere to provide or receive services without obtaining a visa. But the legal infrastructure for such trade is yet rudimentary and uncertain. If an event in cyberspace occurs at once everywhere and nowhere, what law applies? How can consumers be protected when engaging with companies across the world? In this accessible book, cyber-law expert Anupam Chander provides the first thorough discussion of the law that relates to global Internet commerce. Addressing up-to-the-minute examples, such as Google’s struggles with China, the Pirate Bay’s skirmishes with Hollywood, and the outsourcing of services to India, the author insightfully analyzes the difficulties of regulating Internet trade. Chander then lays out a framework for future policies, showing how countries can dismantle barriers while still protecting consumer interests

Business models reinvention: from staffing to management consulting case

Despite the high market demand in the staffing business, the dissatisfaction and volatility of employees is a constant risk and the value proposition for customers brings limited value. Besides being purely transactional, this business model makes the creation and development of assets unfeasible as it lacks regulation and is still perceived as one that can be easily imitated. In order to reverse the situation and considering that the management consulting business model is relatively similar in terms of means and is perceived as having sustainable competitive advantages, the objective of this investigation was to propose the transformation of the business model from staffing to management consulting. A total of 62 professionals from 34 staffing and management consulting companies were interviewed, revealing details regarding the various areas of the value chain. A comparative financial analysis and model validation was also performed. Literature review, as well as the analysis of the interviews was supported by text mining techniques. The conceptual model and the conclusions obtained in parallel are certainly useful for the academy, but also for companies and society, since the transformation of the business model represents a combination of different working conditions and formats in the face of current events. There are several findings, but it should be highlighted that in management consulting the profit per employee is on average 87% higher when compared with a staffing employee. Recommendations are also provided to push the limits of thinking, generate new options and, ultimately, to enhance the competitive advantages of service companies.Apesar da elevada procura de mercado, no negócio de staffing a insatisfação e volatilidade dos colaboradores é um risco atual e a proposta de valor para os clientes aporta valor limitado. Além de puramente transicional, este modelo de negócio inviabiliza a criação e desenvolvimento de ativos, carece de regulamentação, sendo ainda percecionado como facilmente imitável. No sentido de inverter a situação e sendo o modelo de negócio de management consulting relativamente similar em termos de meios e percecionado com vantagens competitivas sustentáveis, foi objetivo desta investigação uma transformação do modelo de negócio de staffing para management consulting. Um total de 62 profissionais de 34 empresas de staffing e management consulting foram entrevistados revelando detalhes relativos às várias dimensões da cadeia de valor. Foi ainda realizada uma análise financeira comparativa e a validação modelo. A revisão de literatura, assim como a análise das entrevistas, foi suportada por técnicas de text mining. O modelo concetual e as conclusões paralelamente obtidas são certamente úteis para o meio académico, mas também para as empresas e para a sociedade, dado que a transformação do modelo de negócio representa igualmente uma combinação de condições e formatos de trabalho diferentes face à atualidade. Existem várias conclusões, mas é de salientar que em management consulting o lucro por colaborador é em média 87% superior a um colaborador de staffing. São ainda fornecidas recomendações para ampliar os limites do pensamento, para gerar novas opções e, em última análise, para potenciar o aumento de vantagens competitivas das empresas de serviços

Encoding Race, Encoding Class

In Encoding Race, Encoding Class Sareeta Amrute explores the work and private lives of highly skilled Indian IT coders in Berlin to reveal the oft-obscured realities of the embodied, raced, and classed nature of cognitive labor. In addition to conducting fieldwork and interviews in IT offices as well as analyzing political cartoons, advertisements, and reports on white-collar work, Amrute spent time with a core of twenty programmers before, during, and after their shifts. She shows how they occupy a contradictory position, as they are racialized in Germany as temporary and migrant grunt workers, yet their middle-class aspirations reflect efforts to build a new, global, and economically dominant India. The ways they accept and resist the premises and conditions of their work offer new potentials for alternative visions of living and working in neoliberal economies. Demonstrating how these coders' cognitive labor realigns and reimagines race and class, Amrute conceptualizes personhood and migration within global capitalism in new ways