A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK OF VENDOR FIRMS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (BOK) AND ITS IMPACT ON OFFSHORE IT OUTSOURCING PERFORMANCE

The vendor firm’s body of knowledge (BoK) has been considered to be vital in IT outsourcing success since outsourcing is considered as flow of knowledge especially from vendor firms to client firms. However, previous researches mostly focused on the client firms’ perspective and less attention on vendor firms and their knowledge bases. In this paper, we investigated the impact of vendor IT firm’s body of knowledge on the success of offshore IT outsourcing through an interaction process based on knowledge based view (KBV) and interaction process model (IPM). At first, vendor firm’s various knowledge bases (that comprise firms’ capability) are identified based on the knowledge based view and then, an interaction process of outsourcing relationship is created as a first order impact of various knowledge bases. It is assumed that vendors share their knowledge by making an outsourcing relationship with clients through an interaction process, which ultimately impact on the success of IT outsourcing

Evolution of Industry 4.0 and Its Implications for International Business

Industry 4.0 is the natural consequence of the techno-industrial development of the last decades. It has the huge potentiality to change the way globalization of manufacturing and consumption of goods and services that take place in the global markets. This chapter will focus on the evolution of Industry 4.0 and how this new technological framework will create values for firms and consumers, and how we can use it for a firm’s competitiveness and save them from the fallout of its development. An extensive literature review shows that the multi-faceted technology will hugely impact the global value chain, global supply chain, and new global division of labor (NGDL). It will reconfigure and re-distribute the business activities in the developing, emerging, and developed country markets and small and medium sizes firms and MNCs. The rapid development of technological and human capabilities can allow firms to reap benefits from this technology. At the same time, there are many challenges related to skill shortages, technological issues, business ethics, and values that need to be overcome to reap a profit from this new technological advancement

해외 IT 아웃소싱 및 지식관리 : 신흥 국가의 서비스 제공자 관점을 중심으로

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 경영학과, 2015. 8. Professor JoongHo Ahn.정보통신기술(ICT)의 발전과 급변하는 비즈니스 환경에서, 기업들은 비즈니스 목적을 달성하기 위해 기업의 조직 경계를 넘어서는 자원과 역량에 접근할 기회를 찾고 있다. 이러한 상황에서, IT 아웃소싱은 기업들이 핵심 IT 사업에만 집중할 수 있도록 하기에, 기업들은 동시에 저임금 국가의 서비스 제공자에게 비핵심적 IT 기능을 위탁하고 있다. 또한 IT 아웃소싱은 비용절감과 경쟁력 증진이라는 측면에서 생산성 증진에 기여하기에 기업의 성장 전략 중 중요한 부분으로 여겨지고 있다. IT 아웃소싱의 골조는, 개별 IT 기능을 의뢰 기업으로부터 지침을 받아 서비스 제공자들이 IT기획을 실행하는 것을 말한다. 그러므로 양 측의 기업들이 사전에 동의한 활동을 실행하기 때문에 성공적인 IT 프로젝트의 실행을 위해 양 측 기업들 모두가 중요하다. 게다가, 의뢰 기업은 특화된 서비스를 제공하는 서비스 제공자에게 다양한 것들을 아웃소싱하는데, 후에 이 특화된 서비스 제공자는 의뢰 기업의 사업 성공에 큰 영향을 미치게 된다. 해외의 서비스 제공자들에게 IT 업무 위탁이 이러한 중요성에도 불구하고, 이 전의 연구들은 의뢰 기업의 IT 아웃소싱에만 치중해왔고, 서비스 제공자 측면에서는 미진한 관심을 보여왔다. 그러므로, 사전연구들의 부족한 부분을 신흥국가에 속한 서비스 제공자들의 IT 아웃소싱 프로젝트를 더 발전시키기 위하여 본 연구는, 서비스 제공자들의 지식체계 재사용, 역량 발전, 조직 학습, 지식 공유를 중점적으로 다룬다. 본 연구는 세 부분으로 구성되어 있다. 먼저, 서비스 제공자들이 의뢰 기업과의 상호 작용으로 인해 어떻게 조직 학습이 이루어지는가, 그리고 효과적인 IT 아웃소싱을 위하여 기업들의 역량이 어떻게 증진되는지를 다룰 것이다. 기업의 자원기준이론에 근거하여, 연구의 첫 부분에서는 서비스 제공자의 IT 아웃소싱의 성공과 역량 증진을 위하여 조직학습의 영향을 연구하기 위하여 개념도식을 제시한다. 제시된 개념도식에 근거하여, 그들의 파트너들이 성공적인 IT 아웃소싱을 위하여 서비스 제공자를 도울 때 얻는 경험과 지식으로 인해 서비스 제공자들의 조직 역량을 증대시킬 수 있음을 주장한다. 서비스 제공자인 IT기업들로부터 212개의 설문 자료를 취합하여 모델의 타당성을 증명했으며, 모델은 조직 학습이 IT 아웃소싱 프로젝트의 성공과 역량 증진에 큰 영향을 미친다는 것을 발견했다. 두 번째 IT 아웃소싱 서비스 제공자들의 지식 체계와 서비스 제공자들이 IT 아웃소싱 성공에 미치는 영향을 다루고 있다. 서비스 제공자들의 지식 체계(BoK)는 IT 아웃소싱의 성공에 큰 영향을 미치는데, 이는 아웃소싱은 곧 의뢰 기업으로부터 피의뢰기업에게 전달되는 지식의 흐름이기 때문이다. 그러나 IT 아웃소싱에서의 서비스 제공자들과 그들의 지적 역량은 지금까지 충분히 연구되지 않았다. 그러므로 본 연구는 기업의 지식기반이론(KBV)과 상호과정모델(Interaction process model)에 근거하여, IT 해외아웃소싱의 성공에 IT 서비스 기업들의 지식체계(BoK)가 미치는 영향에 대해 다루고 있다. 서비스 제공자들의 지식 베이스에 대해 확인하고, 아웃소싱 관계의 상호작용 과정이 다양한 지식 베이스의 1차 영향으로 만들어졌음을 확인하였다. 본 연구의 두 번째 부분에서는 SEM(Structural equation modeling)을 사용하여 153개 아웃소싱 제공기업으로부터 수집된 설문 자료를 분석하였다. 결과적으로, 서비스 제공기업들의 지식 베이스는 상호작용 과정에서 IT 아웃소싱의 성공에 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 세 번째 연구에서는 마지막으로 앞서 다룬 두 번째 연구 모델의 확장에 대해 다룰 것이다. 이 부분에서는 특히 IT 아웃소싱에서의 파트너쉽 수준과 지식 공유에 대해 조직 태도의 역할에 대해서 다룰 것이다. 아웃소싱 관계에서, 지식공유와 파트너십 수준은 지식공유에 대한 조직의 태도에 의해 크게 영향을 받는다. 만약 기업들이 지식공유에 호의적인 태도를 가지고 있다면, 아웃소싱 파트너십을 강화시키고 더 많은 지식을 공유할 기회가 생길 것이다. 그리고 이는 결과적으로 IT 아웃소싱의 성공을 야기한다. 본 연구에서도 역시 SEM(Structural equation modeling)을 사용하여 153개 기업으로부터 수집된 설문 자료를 분석하였다. 그리고 기업의 호의적인 태도를 가질 때 지식 공유와 파트너십 수준의 관계가 강화될 것이란 결과를 도출하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 미래의 IT 아웃소싱의 활성화를 위하여 조직 학습, 지식 축적, 기업의 역량 개발과 축적된 지식체계를 재활용하여야 함을 재조명했다. 또한 본 연구의 결과는 다른 연구와 현업에 대해 많은 기여를 하였다. 첫째로, 기존의 해외 IT 아웃소싱에 대한 연구들 과는 다르게 IT 아웃소싱을 하는 서비스 기업들의 관점에 조직 학습과 조직 역량 개발에 대해 폭 넓은 이해를 할 수 있도록 하였다. 또한, 본 연구는 성공적인 IT 아웃소싱 계획과 수준 높은 아웃소싱 파트너십 구축을 위한 상호작용 과정을 통합시키고 서비스 제공자들의 지식 기반을 확인하여 IT 아웃소싱의 지식 경영에 대해서 기여하였다. 세 번째로, 조직 태도의 역할이 효과적인 지식공유와 파트너십 수준이 IT 아웃소싱에 미치는 영향을 조사하여 성공적인 IT 아웃소싱 계획이 이루어 지도록 기여하였다. 네 번째로, 지속가능한 해외 아웃소싱을 위하여 높은 수준의 역량을 달성하고 조직 학습을 증진시킴으로써 IT 기업들의 매니저들에게 자사의 사업 전략을 재고할 수 있는 기회를 제공한다. 다섯 번째로, IT 서비스 기업들은 필요한 지식 기반을 축적하고 IT 아웃소싱에 대하여 의뢰 기업과 공유하기 위한 목적으로 본 연구를 사용할 수 있다. 마지막으로 본 연구 결과는 IT 아웃소싱에서의 강화된 파트너십을 위한 지식공유에 대해 기업 구성원들이 긍정적인 태도를 가질 수 있도록 IT 기업들의 경영자들에게 가이드라인을 제공해줄 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.With the advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) and rapidly changing business environment, firms look for access to resources and capabilities beyond their organizational boundaries in order to achieve their business objectives. In these circumstances, IT outsourcing allows them to concentrate on their core IT businesses, and simultaneously outsource less/non-core IT functions to specialized service providers in low cost countries (LCC). Moreover, IT outsourcing is considered as an important part of firms growth strategy that allows them to improve productivity, reduce costs and increase competitiveness. Therefore, in todays competitive business environment, outsourcing strategy is viewed one of the very few strategies that helps firms to achieve their strategic IT goals. In IT outsourcing framework, each IT function is performed under an IT project which is run by service providers following the guidelines received from the client firms. Hence, role of both parties are crucial, and contribute to successful implementation of the IT projects since both parties execute a set of predefined activities. Moreover, client firms send many outsourcing activities to specialized service provider and the later one play an important role on overall business success of the client firms. Despite the importance of service providers role in IT offshoring activities, previous literature largely focused on client-side IT outsourcing, and an insignificant attention has given on service provider side. Therefore, to fulfill the gap of existing studies, this dissertation focuses on exploring the knowledge sharing, organizational learning, capability development, and reusing the body of knowledge (BoK) for further executing the IT outsourcing projects from emerging country service-provider perspective. This dissertation consists of three essays. The aim of the first essay is to explore how service providers learn from counterpart (clients) and inter-firm experience, and develop firms capabilities for effectively implementation of IT outsourcing project. Grounded upon the resource-based-view (RBV) of firms, this essay proposed a conceptual framework to investigate the impact of organizational learning of service provider for capability development and IT outsourcing success. Based on the proposed model, this essay argues that service providers can develop their organizational capabilities by using aggregated experiences and learnings from partners that helps them to implement the IT outsourcing project successfully. The model is then experimentally validated using a total of 232 survey data collected from service providing IT firms, and found that organizational learning significantly influence on capability development and success of IT outsourcing projects. The second essay investigates the body of knowledge (BoK) of service providers in IT outsourcing and their impact on IT project success. Service providers body of knowledge (BoK) is vital for IT outsourcing success, since outsourcing contributes to the flow of knowledge, especially from vendor firms to client firms. However, research on service provider and their knowledge bases in IT outsourcing has received insignificant attention. Therefore, this essay examines the impact of IT service firms BoK on the success of offshore IT outsourcing through an interaction process based on the knowledge based view (KBV) of the firm and the interaction process model (IPM). Service providers knowledge bases are identified and an interaction process of outsourcing relationship created as a first order impact of various knowledge bases. This essay analyzed survey data collected from 153 firms using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. The results show that service provider knowledge bases have a significant impact on IT outsourcing success through an interaction process. The third essay is an extended model of second essay. This essay investigates the role of organizational attitude towards knowledge sharing and relationship quality, very specifically, moderating role of organizational attitude on the relationship between knowledge sharing and relationship quality in IT outsourcing. In an outsourcing relationship, the knowledge sharing, and relationship quality largely influenced by organizational modes of attitude toward knowledge sharing. If firms are more positive towards knowledge sharing, then there is chance to share more knowledge and build stronger outsourcing partnership, which in turn results in IT outsourcing success. This study also analyzed survey data collected from 153 firms using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, and found that the relationship between knowledge sharing and relationship quality is stronger under positive attitude of the firms. The findings shed new light on organizational learning, knowledge accumulation, and development of firms capabilities, and reusing the accumulated body of knowledge (BoK) for further executing the IT outsourcing projects. The findings also make a number of contributions to the research and practices. First, the enhanced understanding of organizational learning and capability development in IT outsourcing research from the perspective of service firms contributes to the existing literature of offshore IT outsourcing. Second, this dissertation enriches the literature of knowledge management in IT outsourcing research through identifying the knowledge bases of service providers and integrating to interaction process for building strong outsourcing relationship and successful IT outsourcing project. Third, this dissertation extends the role of organizational attitude to effective knowledge sharing and quality partnership that contribute to IT outsourcing success, thus, contributes to joint organizational capability for successful IT outsourcing project. Forth, the findings might equally be interesting to the managers of IT firms to reconfigure their business strategy by improving organizational learning and creating higher level competencies for sustainable offshore outsourcing. Fifth, service IT firms also might use the findings for accumulating necessary knowledge bases and sharing with clients for successful IT outsourcing project. Sixth, the results might guide managers of IT firms to focus on improving employees positive attitude towards knowledge sharing for stronger outsourcing relationship in IT outsourcing.TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Background and Motivation 1 1.2 Research Goal and Research Questions 6 1.3 Overview of Studies 7 1.3.1 Organizational Learning and Capability Development 7 1.3.2 Body of Knowledge (BoK) and IT Outsourcing Project 8 1.3.3 Organizational Attitude, Knowledge Sharing, and Relationship Quality in ITO 9 CHAPTER 2: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES 11 2.1. Introduction 11 2.2. Literature Review 15 2.2.1 Organizational Learning and IT Outsourcing 15 2.2.2 Organizational Capabilities and IT outsourcing 18 2.2.3 Development of Firms Capabilities 25 2.2.4 Developing Capabilities and IT Outsourcing Success 27 2.2.5 Theoretical Development (Resource-Based View (RBV) of the Firm) 28 2.3. Research Model and Hypotheses 31 2.3.1 Research Model 31 2.3.2 Hypotheses Development 31 2.4. Research Design and Methodology 44 2.4.1 Development of Measure 44 2.4.2 Data Collection and Sample Characteristics 47 2.5 Data Analysis and Result 50 2.5.1 Analysis Method 50 2.5.2 Measurement Model 50 2.5.3 Common Method Bias 53 2.5.4 Structural Model 54 2.6. Discussion 56 2.7. Implications 58 2.7.1 Implications for Research 58 2.7.2 Implications for Practice 60 2.8. Limitations and Future Research 61 2.9 Conclusion 63 CHAPTER 3: BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (BOK) OF SERVICE PROVIDERS IN IT OUTSOURCING 64 3.1. Introduction 64 3.2 Literature Review 67 3.2.1 Offshore IT Outsourcing 67 3.2.2 Body of Knowledge in IT Outsourcing 68 3.3 Theoretical Development 72 3.3.1 Knowledge Based View 73 3.3.2 Interaction Process Model (IPM) 75 3.3.3 Relationship Quality 77 3.3.4 IT Outsourcing Success 77 3.4 Research Model and Hypotheses Development 78 3.4.1 Research Model 78 3.4.2 Hypotheses Development 79 3.5 Research Methodology 84 3.5.1 Sample Selection 84 3.5.2 Operationalization of the Constructs 85 3.5.3 Data Collection 86 3.6 Data Analysis and Result 88 3.6.1 Measurement Model 88 3.6.2 Common Method Bias 90 3.6.3 Structural Model 91 3.7 Discussion and Conclusion 93 CHAPTER 4: SERVICE PROVIDERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN IT OUTSOURCING 97 4.1. Introduction 97 4.2. Literature Review 100 4.2.1 Knowledge Sharing 100 4.2.2 Organizational Attitude 103 4.2.3 Relationship Quality 105 4.3. Research Model and Hypotheses Development 106 4.3.1 Research Model 106 4.3.2 Hypotheses Development 107 4.4. Research Methodology 111 4.4.1 Sample Selection and Data Collection 111 4.4.2 Operationalization of the Constructs 113 4.4.3 Measurement Model 114 4.4.4 Common Method Bias 117 4.5. Data Analysis and Results 118 4.5.1 Structural Model 118 4.5.2 Mediating Role of Relationship Quality 120 4.5.3 Moderating Effect of Organizational Attitude 121 4.5.4 Results 125 4.6. Discussion 127 4.7. Conclusion 129 4.7.1 Limitations and Future Research 130 4.7.2 Implications for Research and Practice 131 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUDING REMARKS 135 5.1 Contributions 135 5.1.1 Theoretical Contributions 135 5.1.2 Practical Contributions 137 5.2 Limitation and Future Research 139 5.3 Conclusions 141 APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 1 143 APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 2 144 APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 3 152 APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 4 159 REFERENCES 162Docto

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