Information Systems Offshoring—A Literature Review and Analysis

IS offshoring has become one of the most discussed phenomena in IS research and practice. Particularly due to its rapid evolvement, current research on IS offshoring lacks a consolidated view on existing results. The article at hand seeks to meet this need by systematically reviewing and analyzing prior academic literature on IS offshoring. Based on a review of top-ranked IS and management journals as well as IS conference proceedings, we compile an exhaustive bibliography of ninety-six publications solely focusing on IS offshoring from a (project) management perspective. To adequately address the immense diversity of these publications, a multi-perspective research framework consisting of three perspectives, namely, research focus, research approach, and reference theory, is introduced and forms the basis for our literature analysis. The analysis results confirm the appropriateness of our framework and reveal directions for future research along the framework perspectives: Most importantly, in an effort to increase the significance and the trustworthiness of their results, researchers should apply a more theory-driven approach and provide a better description of their research context. Moreover, future research needs to pay particular attention to the pre-implementation stages of an IS offshoring initiative as well as the special nature of nearshoring and captive offshoring. Across all project stages, researchers should not only concentrate on the client point of view but incorporate multiple points of view

Offshore Business Processing Outsourcing by Australian Enterprises to Service Providers Located in India

The primary research question for this PhD was: “What are the key factors that contribute to the success of offshore business process outsourcing (OBPO) by Australian and international organisations to service providers located in India and the Philippines?” A qualitative research design in the positivist paradigm was adopted, involving longitudinal case studies of five client companies. A primary contribution was identification of critical success factors for management of OBPO at the individual company level

Challenges and Practices in Aligning Requirements with Verification and Validation: A Case Study of Six Companies

Weak alignment of requirements engineering (RE) with verification and validation (VV) may lead to problems in delivering the required products in time with the right quality. For example, weak communication of requirements changes to testers may result in lack of verification of new requirements and incorrect verification of old invalid requirements, leading to software quality problems, wasted effort and delays. However, despite the serious implications of weak alignment research and practice both tend to focus on one or the other of RE or VV rather than on the alignment of the two. We have performed a multi-unit case study to gain insight into issues around aligning RE and VV by interviewing 30 practitioners from 6 software developing companies, involving 10 researchers in a flexible research process for case studies. The results describe current industry challenges and practices in aligning RE with VV, ranging from quality of the individual RE and VV activities, through tracing and tools, to change control and sharing a common understanding at strategy, goal and design level. The study identified that human aspects are central, i.e. cooperation and communication, and that requirements engineering practices are a critical basis for alignment. Further, the size of an organisation and its motivation for applying alignment practices, e.g. external enforcement of traceability, are variation factors that play a key role in achieving alignment. Our results provide a strategic roadmap for practitioners improvement work to address alignment challenges. Furthermore, the study provides a foundation for continued research to improve the alignment of RE with VV

The interplay between the sociomaterial, cognitive and paradox views in the field of strategy as practice : "How can we know what we think until we see what we do"

The strategy-as-practice research has grown noticeably in recent years to emphasize the micro-level activities in strategy. Whilst previous research have acknowledged the importance of sociomaterial, cognitive, and paradoxical perspectives in strategy, studies combining these approaches have been missing. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the strategy as practice (SAP) literature and aims to “make sense of the interplay between the sociomaterial, cognitive, and paradox views in the field as strategy as practice”. The empirical part of the thesis comprises five articles from three different datasets collected both public and private organizations. The results of the study illustrate the interplay of different views and the complexity of strategy work, and suggest that cognitive structures frame organizational strategy work. Furthermore, the findings suggest that sociomaterial practices facilitate strategy work by both enabling and structuring the strategic discussions and the process of strategy work. Finally, sociomaterial practices provide means how to balance between paradoxes faced during strategy work and strategic change situations. The present study creates a framework to increase our understanding about the interplay between the sociomaterial, cognitive, and paradox views in the research field of strategy as practice.Mikrotasoisiin strategisiin käytäntöihin painottuva strategia käytäntönä -tutkimus on kasvanut merkittävästi viime vuosina. Vaikka strategia käytäntönä -tutkimus on tutkinut sosiomateriaalisten, kognitiivisten ja paradoksaalisten näkökulmien merkitystä strategiassa, aiemmat tutkimukset eivät ole tutkineet näiden lähestymistapojen keskinäistä vuorovaikutusta. Tämä väitöskirja pyrkii omalta osaltaan tuomaan uutta strategia käytäntönä -kirjallisuuteen ja ymmärtämään sosiomateriaalisen, kognitiivisen, ja paradoksinäkökulman vuorovaikutusta strategia käytäntönä -tutkimusalalla. Väitöskirjan empiirinen osa koostuu viidestä tutkimusartikkelista, jotka pohjautuvat julkisesta ja yksityisistä organisaatioista kerättyihin aineistoihin. Tutkimustulokset havainnollistavat eri näkökulmien keskinäistä vuorovaikutusta ja kompleksisuutta strategiatyössä, jossa kognitiiviset rakenteet määrittelevät organisaation strategiatyötä. Tulokset tuovat esiin sosiomateriaalisten käytäntöjen mahdollistavan roolin organisaation strategiatyössä: sosiomateriaaliset käytännöt mahdollistavat ja luovat rakennetta sekä strategiakeskusteluille että strategiatyölle. Lisäksi sosiomateriaaliset käytännöt tarjoavat keinoja tasapainoilla strategiatyössä ja strategisessa muutoksessa esiin nousevien paradoksien kanssa. Tämä tutkimus luo viitekehyksen lisäämään ymmärrystä sosiomateriaalisen, kognitiivisen ja paradoksinäkökulmien keskinäisestä vuorovaikutuksesta strategia käytäntönä -tutkimusalalla.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Not so Shore Anymore: The New Imperatives When Sourcing in the Age of Open

Software outsourcing has been the subject of much research in the past 25 years, largely because of potential cost savings envisaged through lower labour costs, ‘follow-the-sun’ development, access to skilled developers, and proximity to new markets. In recent years, the success of the open source phe-nomenon has inspired a number of new forms of sourcing that combine the potential of global sourcing with the elusive and much sought-after possibility of increased innovation. Three of these new forms of sourcing are opensourcing, innersourcing and crowdsourcing. Based on a comparative analysis of a number of case studies of these forms of sourcing, we illustrate how they differ in both significant and subtle ways from outsourcing. We conclude that these emerging sourcing approaches call for conceptual development and refocusing. Specifically, to understand software sourcing in the age of open, the important concept is no longer ‘shoring,’ but rather five identified imperatives (governance sharedness, unknownness, intrinsicness, innovativeness and co-opetitiveness) and their implications for the development situation at hand

Reshoring UK-based automotive manufacturing supply chains: the underpinning motivational framework from a multi-case perspective

Offshoring is a complex location strategy primarily the transfer of production, supply and R&D activities from the home country to an overseas location, initially to benefit from labour intensive processes in emerging economies and late for market seeking strategies. The UK automotive manufacturing industry have offshored extensively with development of complex global supply chains substantiating a global approach. Recent evidence authenticates a strategic change towards reshoring manufacturing and supply back to the home country with thirteen percent return rate. Comprehending the motives and drivers of UK manufacturing reshoring is emergent. The thesis investigates why UK-based automotive manufacturing facilities are motivated to reshoring elements of their supply chain back to the UK. Adopting a qualitative multiple-case study approach within UK automotive manufacturing industry, the thesis finds a magnitude of motives, barriers, and location decision influencers. Findings are thematically mapped to grasp the relationships and interconnectivity across themes. The moderation of analytical findings determined four moderated motives and two moderated barriers with interconnectivity across multiple disciplinary themes, pertinent to lean and agile theoretical concepts in automotive manufacturing. The new dynamic framework encompasses a wholistic reshoring position developed from UK automotive manufacturing insights, and articulates the underpinning theory, six moderated motives and barriers driven by the theoretical concepts, five strategic decision influences and in consideration of changes to the dynamic external environment

Selective Outsourcing in Global IT Services : Operational Level Challenges and Opportunities

Companies need to answer and react timely and efficiently to their customers’ perception in order to stay in business. Companies are finding ways to control and reduce costs. Increasingly, internal IT development and service delivery activities are outsourced to external suppliers. The most common outsourcing forms are total and selective outsourcing, which are produced in nearshore and/or offshore mode. In this dissertation, the case units are two global units in Nokia Devices: IT unit and Delivery Quality and Corrective Action Preventive Action (DQ and CAPA) unit. This dissertation consists of five publications and five research questions. The motives for the research questions originate from the case units’ real-life needs and challenges. The research approach used is qualitative. Action research was conducted during years 2009-2013. This research gives focus on the global IT service delivery, although the case company’s core-competence was to produce end-consumer products. The target was to get operational level knowledge from the case units’ outsourcing operation and practices in a Global Selective Outsourcing Environment (GSOE). This dissertation addresses the opportunities and challenges of outsourcing faced by the operational level personnel. In the GSOE, the service purchasing company’s personnel and the supplier’s personnel jointly cooperate to produce the expected outcomes and IT services. This research found that the GSOE-based operation includes multi-level customer- and supplier-ships. In order to answer the customers’ perception, the operation included quality and customer-centric practices. This research found that defining and implementing customer centricity is challenging. Unclear definitions, requirements, roles, responsibilities, and activities can negatively affect the operational level implementation. The GSOEbased operation includes also contract negotiations among the GSOE parties. Successful IT outsourcing is not built only on formal contracts. Focus is needed also on building trust, commitment, communication, and mutual cooperation and dependence. This study found that retaining operational level progress and information visibility inside the service purchasing company made it possible to hold the ownership and avoid getting into a “supplier trap.” The operational level cooperation, interaction and quality management practices affected the service purchasing company’s trust and satisfaction. The trust in the case units was found to exist among people, and this trust was formed based on an individual’s knowledge, capabilities, behavior, and performance. Quality management practices played a significant role in building trust that added to the credibility of the operation

Product Sourcing Strategies of UK Footwear Firms

This research projects is aimed at clarifying the impact of global economic shifts on UK footwear sector firms’ future product sourcing strategies, their sourcing location decisions and how they might respond to ongoing turbulence if further contraction within the domestic industry is to be halted. China remains the world largest exporter of footwear to the UK. They are, however, experiencing significant inflationary pressures in manufacturing such that some UK firms are considering alternative sourcing locations. Additionally, many footwear firms seek to achieve greater supply chain (SC) agility whether outsourcing or manufacturing in order to respond more effectively to satisfying demand in increasingly fickle UK market segments and in some export markets. In this regard consideration is being given to manufacturing repatriation, however, sector expertise is becoming increasingly scarce with the resulting loss of traditional shoemaking knowledge and ‘know-how’. Given such circumstances, technological innovation may prove to be the only strategy for re-shoring to become viable. The research will adopt both Transaction Cost Theory and the Resource Base View as both individual and complementary theoretical lens. Comparative case studies provide the main source of data, supported by sector specialist key informant narratives in order to provide verification to the primary outputs. The primary case studies will be subjected to ‘cross case’ analysis in order to generate findings which identify critical issues relating to footwear product sourcing by UK firms. In turn they will provide a platform for the development of new SC theoretical concepts and generate usable supply chain practitioner models/ frameworks. If adopted these new approaches to product sourcing strategy should positively impact on firm performance product sourcing efficiency, improved SC agility to halt sector decline