Collaboration, Learning and Innovation Across Outsourced Services Value Networks

Pamela Abbott is a lecturer in Information Systems at Brunel University, London. She obtained her PhD at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK, in research done on nearshore models of offshore software outsourcing. Her research interests include the suitability of locations for software and services outsourcing, strategies for software and services export in developing countries, the role that distance plays in managing offshore working arrangements and the relationship between context and the development of client-supplier relationships.

Yingqin Zheng is a Lecturer at the School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London. She obtained a PhD in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar. Her research interests lie with the implications of information technologies in organizational and social transformation. Her recent research investigates distributed collaboration, organizational learning, social innovation, collective action, and social inclusion.

Dr Rong Du is a professor at the School of Economics and Management, Xidian University, China. In the past, she has worked as a visiting professor in the Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, US, the Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, UK, and the Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland. Her research interests include knowledge management and cross-cultural management.

This book collects and reports on the results of a study conducted on the Chinese Software and Services Outsourcing (SSO) industry, focusing on one of its main players as a key case study. Two sets of research findings are presented: first, the knowledge management and communication processes inherent within a highly collaborative software development project between the case study company and one of its long-term UK clients are explored and distilled into specific practices; second, at the organizational level, the strategies used by the company to build and exploit capabilities and to dynamically configure resources to promote specific value positions along its outsourced services value networks are identified and discussed. The significance of these findings for similar China-based global high-tech firms and the value of this organizational form in moving closer to the goals of the 2020 enterprise vision are both discussed, along with the implications of the findings for EU/UK businesses operating in similar digital domains.

Illustrates through case studies ways to achieve collaborative innovation between Western clients and foreign outsourcing service providers

Introduction.- Collaboration as a Process of Creolization of Vance Info.- VanceInfo's Reconfigurative Strategy.- Innovation in a Collaborative Project.- Discussion.- Conclusion: The 2020 Enterprise.