Knowledge transfer in IT offshoring relationships: The roles of social capital, efficacy and outcome expectations

Information Systems Journal

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 167-202

  Zimmermann, Angelika ^a   Ravishankar, M N ^a  

^a LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Efficacy; IT offshoring; Knowledge transfer; Outcome expectations; Social capital

Indexed keywords

EFFICACY; KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER; OFF-SHORING; OUTCOME EXPECTATIONS; SOCIAL CAPITALS;

INDUSTRY; INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY;

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT;

EID: 84892838915     PISSN: 13501917     EISSN: 13652575     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/isj.12027     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980) Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Prentice-Hall, Englewoods-Cliffs, NJ.
2. Argote, L. & Ingram, P. (2000) Knowledge transfer: a basis for competitive advantage in firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82, 150-169.
3. Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. W.H. Freeman, New York.
4. Bandura, A. & Wood, R. (1989) Effect of perceived controllability and performance standards on self-regulation of complex decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 805-814.
5. Bhagat, R.S., Kedia, B.L., Harveston, P.D. & Triandis, H.C. (2002) Cultural variations in the cross-border transfer of organizational knowledge: an integrative framework. Academy of Management Review, 27, 204-221.
6. Bock, G.W., Zmund, R.W. & Kim, Y.G. (2005) Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly, 29, 87-111.
7. Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (1991) Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science, 2, 40-57.
8. Chang, Y.-Y., Gong, Y. & Peng, M.W. (2012) Expatriate knowledge transfer, subsidiary absorptive capacity, and subsidiary performance. Academy of Management Journal, 55, 927-948.
9. Chen, Ch.-J. & Hung, Sh.-W. (2010) To give or to receive? Factors influencing members' knowledge sharing and community promotion in professional virtual communities. Information Management, 47, 226-236.
10. Chiu, Ch.-M., Hsu, M.H. & Wang, E.T.G. (2006) Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: an integration of social capital and social cognitive theories. Decision Support Systems, 42, 1872-1888.
11. Chua, A.L. & Pan, S.L. (2008) Knowledge transfer and organizational learning in IS offshore sourcing. Omega, 36, 267-281.
12. Cohen, L. & El-Sawad, A. (2007) Lived experiences of offshoring: an examination of UK and Indian financial service employees' accounts of themselves and one another. Human Relations, 60, 1235-1262.
13. Cummings, J.N. (2011) Geography is alive and well in virtual teams. Communications of the ACM, 54, 24-26.
14. Dibbern, J., Winkler, J. & Heinzl, A. (2008) Explaining variations in client extra costs between software projects offshored to India. MIS Quarterly, 32, 333-366.
15. Eden, L. (2009) Letter from the editor-in-chief: reverse knowledge transfers, culture clashes and going international. Journal of International Business Studies, 40, 177-180.
16. Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989) Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14, 532-550.
17. Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
18. Gregory, R. (2010) Review of the IS offshoring literature: the role of cross-cultural differences and management practices. Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Information Systems, Pretoria, South Africa.
19. Gupta, A.K. & Govindarajan, A. (2000) Knowledge flows within multinational cooperations. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 473-496.
20. Hansen, M.T. (1999) The search-transfer problem: the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 82-111.
21. Hawk, S., Zheng, W. & Zmud, R.W. (2009) Overcoming knowledge-transfer barriers in infrastructure management outsourcing. Lessons from a case study. MIS Quarterly Executive, 8, 123-139.
22. Herbsleb, J.D. & Grinter, R.E. (1999) Splitting the organization and integrating the code: Conway's law revisited. Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering, Los Angeles, CA.
23. Herbsleb, J.D. & Moitra, D. (2001) Global software development. IEEE Software, 16-20.
24. Hsu, M.-J., Ju, T.L., Yen, Ch.-H. & Chang, Ch.-M. (2007) Knowledge sharing behaviour in virtual communities: the relationship between trust, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 65, 153-169.
25. Inkpen, A.C. & Tsang, E.W.K. (2005) Social capital, networks, and knowledge transfer. Academy of Management Review, 30, 146-165.
26. Jarvenpaa, S.L. & Leidner, D.E. (1999) Communication and trust in global virtual teams. Organization Science, 10, 791-815.
27. Kang, M., Kim, Y.-G. & Bock, G.-W. (2010) Identifying different antecedents for closed vs. open knowledge transfer. Journal of Information Science, 36, 585-602.
28. Kankanhalli, A., Tan, B.C.Y. & Wei, K.-K. (2005) Contributing knowledge to electronic knowledge repositories: an empirical investigation. MIS Quarterly, 29, 113-143.
29. Kuo, F.-Y. & Young, M.-L. (2008) A study of the intention-action gap in knowledge sharing practices. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59, 1224-1237.
30. Leonardi, P.M. & Bailey, D.E. (2008) Transformational technologies and the creation of new work practices: making implicit knowledge explicit in task-based offshoring. MIS Quarterly, 32, 411-436.
31. Levina, N. & Vaast, E. (2008) Innovating or doing as told? Status differences and overlapping boundaries in offshore collaboration. MIS Quarterly, 32, 307-332.
32. Lin, H.-F. (2007) Effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on employee knowledge sharing intentions. Journal of Information Science, 33, 135-149.
33. Lin, T.-Ch. & Huang, Ch.-Ch. (2008) Understanding knowledge management system usage antecedents: An integration of social cognitive theory and task technology fit. Information & Management, 45, 410-417.
34. Lin, T.-Ch. & Huang, Ch.-Ch. (2010) Withholding effort in knowledge contribution: the role of social exchange and social cognitive on project teams. Information Management, 47, 188-196.
35. Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E.G. (2002) Judging the quality of qualitative case study research. In: The Qualitative Researcher's Companion, Huberman, A.M. & Miles, M.B. (eds), pp. 205-216. Sage, London, UK.
36. Lindsley, D.H., Brass, D.J. & Thomas, J.B. (1995) Efficacy-performance spirals: a multilevel perspective. Academy of Management Review, 20, 645-678.
37. Meyer, A.D., Tsui, A.S. & Hinings, C.R. (1993) Configurational approaches to organizational analysis. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 1175-1195.
38. Metiu, A. (2006) Owning the code: status closure in distributed groups. Organization Science, 17, 418-435.
39. Minbaeva, D.B. & Michailova, S. (2004) Knowledge transfer and expatriation in multinational corporations. Employee Relations, 26, 663-679.
40. Minbaeve, D.B. (2012) Strategic HRM in building micro-foundations of organizational knowledge-based performance. Human Resource Management Review, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.10.001
41. Nahapiet, J. & Ghoshal, S. (1998) Social capital, intellectual capital and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242-266.
42. Newell, S. & Swan, J. 2000. Trust and inter-organizational networking. Human Relations, 53, 287-328.
43. Nonaka, I. (1994) Dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5, 14-37.
44. Oshri, I., van Fenema, P. & Kotlarski, J. (2008) Knowledge transfer in globally distributed teams: the role of transactive memory. Information Systems Journal, 18, 593-616.
45. Ravishankar, M.N., Cohen, L. & El-Sawad, A. (2010) Strategies of resistance, accommodation and the pursuit of aspiration among new economy firms in India: reflections from two cases. Industrial Relations Journal, 41, 154-167.
46. Ravishankar, M.N., Pan, S.L. & Myers, M.D. (2013) Information technology offshoring in India: a postcolonial perspective. European Journal of Information Systems, 22, 1-16. doi: 10.1057/ejis.2012.32
47. Reagans R. & McEvily B. (2003) Network structure and knowledge transfer: the effects of cohesion and range. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 240-267.
48. Rottman, J.W. (2008) Successful knowledge transfer within offshore supplier networks: a case study exploring social capital in strategic alliances. Journal of Information Technology, 23, 31-43.
49. Szulanski, G. (1996) Exploring internal stickiness: impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17, 27-43.
50. Tsai, W. & Ghoshal, S. (1998) Social capital and value creation: the role of intrafirm networks. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 464-476.
51. Van Wijk, R., Jansen, J.J.P. & Lyles, M.A. (2008) Inter- and intra-organizational knowledge transfer: a meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Management Studies, 45, 830-853.
52. Vlaar, P.W.L., Fenema, P.C. & Tiwari, V. (2008) Cocreating understanding and value in distributed work: how members of onsite and offshore vendor teams give, demand, and break sense. MIS Quarterly, 32, 227-255.
53. Wasko, M. & Faraj, S. (2005) Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. MIS Quarterly, 29, 35-57.
54. Williams, C. (2011) Client-vendor knowledge transfer in IS offshore outsourcing: insights from a survey of Indian software engineers. Information Systems Journal, 21, 335-356.
55. Winkler, J., Dibbern, J. & Heinzl, A. (2008) The impact of cultural differences in offshore outsourcing. Case study results from German-Indian application development projects. Information Systems Frontiers, 10, 243-258.
56. Yin, R.K. (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 4th edn. Sage, London, UK.
57. Zimmermann, A. (2011) Interpersonal relationships in transnational, virtual teams - towards a configurational perspective. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13, 59-78.
58. Zimmermann, A. & Ravishankar, M.N. (2011) Collaborative IT offshoring relationships and professional role identities: reflections from a field study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78, 351-360.