Control Mechanisms in Offshore Outsourced Projects
Manju Ahuja
Kelley School of Business
Indiana University Bloomington
2:00-3:30 pm on Friday, March 10, 2006
Indiana University Bloomington, Herman B. Wells Library, Room LI001
Talk preceded by an informal gathering with cookies, tea, and coffee, available at 1:45pm.
A reception for the speaker and graduate students will follow the talk.
ABSTRACT
The risks and challenges faced by client companies involved in offshore project development are many. Clients impose a range of control mechanisms to mitigate such challenges. Building on prior research utilizing control theory, this research investigates the effects of knowledge transfer requirements and client ISD capability in shaping the choice of control modes, as well as the choice of offshore model and relationships in offshore application development projects. Eight offshore application development projects were studied using a grounded theory approach. Results indicate that formal controls and pure-offshore models predominate in projects involving low knowledge transfer requirements, while a portfolio of control modes and hybrid models are preferred in projects involving high knowledge transfer requirements. Partner relationships are preferred in projects having high client ISD capability, while one-off relationships are favored in low ISD capability projects.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Manju K. Ahuja is Assistant Professor of MIS at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Her publications have appeared in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Organization Science, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Management, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Database. She is actively involved in research on issues related to virtual teams, virtual communities, and management of human resources in IT professions, including gender issues. She and her colleagues were recently the recipients of a research grant from National Science Foundation. Her research has been cited by publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Strategy+Business, and Computerworld. See her web site for more information: http://www.iub.edu/~isdept/faculty/mahuja.html
