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安徽工业大学 毕业论文
and scope resulting from the suppliers‘experience with a multitude and variety of clients enable the suppliers to develop a set of complementary organizational capabilities (Jarvenpaa and Mao 2008; Levina and Ross 2003). These capabilities encompass knowledge and skills that are specific to individual clients, and generic management ability that can be applied across different clients (Ethiraj etal. 2005). The more mature suppliers, in particular, are able to dynamically evolve their capabilities and continuously move up the IT value chain in a changing industry environment (Garud et al. 2006).
Offshore outsourcing, as a unique form of international venturing, brings opportunities and challenges to both clients and suppliers (e.g., Ang and Inkpen 2008; Carmel and Agarwal 2002). The national and cultural boundaries between the client and the supplier, unless proactively managed, can be detrimental to effective collaboration between the two parties (Levina and Vaast 2008). In order to alleviate such boundaries, the supplier needs to develop a trusting interorganizational relationship with clients (Kaiser and Hawk 2004). The supplier also needs to adopt a suitable contract structure. For example, if the offshore supplier does not yet possess mature capabilities and sufficient scale for undertaking large, complex outsourcing engagements, the supplier can leverage the mediated sourcing model (e.g., Jarvenpaa and Mao 2008). Most existing research on the suppliers‘ perspective focuses on their practices for addressing national and cultural boundaries after they have already entered international markets.The question of how suppliers make strategic decisions regarding their entry and expansion in different markets in the first place, however, has not been investigated.
Another characteristic of the existing research on the perspective of offshore suppliers is the focus on Indian firms (Lacity et al. 2010). Chinese suppliers are very different from Indian firms (e.g., Levina et al. 2011; Qu and Brocklehurst 2003;Rottman and Hao 2008), and are becoming increasingly important in today‘s global IT outsourcing industry (KPMG 2010). Major Chinese suppliers have accumulated significant capabilities (e.g., Du and Pan 2010). For example, the 2010ranking of global suppliers by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals shows that 6 out of the top 10 suppliers in the area of research and development (R&D) service outsourcing are Chinese IT service suppliers (IAOP 2010b).Despite their rapid emergence, Chinese suppliers have been understudied in the IS literature (Lacity et al. 2010).
2.4 Synthesis
Chinese IT service suppliers represent an intersection of two types of understudied firms: knowledge-intensive new ventures and those based in emerging markets. In addition, China itself is an understudied location in the global IT outsourcing industry. 第 36 页 共 62 页
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安徽工业大学 毕业论文
Chinese IT service suppliers are in a relatively early stage in their internationalization, but are rapidly expanding into developed markets in a highly entrepreneurial fashion.The internationalization behavior and strategies of these suppliers may differ significantly from traditional models. For these suppliers, internationalization can be an inseparable or even integrated component of their overall growth and development strategy (e.g., Jones 1999).On the other hand,their inter- nationalization strategy formation process can be relatively unstructured (Collinson and Houlden 2005; Madsen and Servais 1997).
The existing IS literature, although having offered a rich depiction of IT service suppliers, has not examined how such ―new multinational‖ suppliers internationalize and make strategic decisions regarding their internationalization. The related international business and international entrepreneurship research has provided valuable theoretical frameworks for describing and explaining firms‘ internationalization behavior, but has not adequately elaborated the processes surrounding the formation and evolution of these firms (Mathews and Zander 2007). More in-depth research, especially qualitative, case-based research (Nummela and Welch 2007; Piekkari and Welch 2006), is needed to explore ―the nature of managerial decision-making and the relationship between organizational behavior and entry strategies in early internationalizing firms‖ (Rialp et al. 2005a, p.162). The goal of this study is to explore how Chinese IT service suppliers internationalize, and develop a realistic and holistic conceptualization of the suppliers‘ strategy formation process during their internationalization (Rialp-Criado et al. 2010).
3．Research Methods
This research focuses on answering how and exploratory what questions regarding a phenomenon that is embedded in organizational practices and grounded in real-life situations. Therefore, the case study methodology was selected (Benbasat et al. 1987; Dubé and Paré 2003; Eisenhardt 1989;Pettigrew 1990; Siggelkow 2007; Yin 2003). In order to both provide a fine-grained view of the evolution of strategy processes (Melin 1992; Van de Ven and Poole 1995) within the supplier, and replicate this study at multiple sites (Leonard-Barton 1990), the interview-based study adopts a three-part approach. First, an in-depth, multiple-year study of one of the largest Chinese IT service suppliers, Supplier A, was conducted. Second, a moderate study of three of the next-largest suppliers, Suppliers B, D, and E, was conducted. Third, a broader study of nine other major suppliers, Suppliers C, F, G,H, I, J, K, L, and M, was performed. The three parts of the study overlapped in terms of timing. Most interviews were conducted at Supplier A.
3.1 Site Selection
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安徽工业大学 毕业论文
The selection of suppliers included almost all of the most globally recognized Chinese suppliers and several other most domestically reputable suppliers (e.g., Chinasourcing 2008; IAOP 2008, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011). These firms had varied sizes and backgrounds. Collectively, they provide a relatively complete view of the top tier of China‘s offshore IT service industry. The 13 suppliers were headquartered in 7 service outsourcing ―hub cities‖ designated by the Ministry of Commerce of China. The seven cities covered all three major geographical drivers of China‘s IT service industry: North, Northeast, and East. Since the study focuses on the suppliers‘ internationalization behavior and decision rationale, only suppliers with major clients from foreign markets were selected.
In particular, Supplier A, where the in-depth study was conducted, was one of the largest Chinese IT service firms. Its significant visibility and success in the industry made it an ―extreme‖ case for the study (Pettigrew 1990). The supplier, founded in the early 1990s, was based on a collaborative initiative between a computer science laboratory of a Chinese university and a Japanese electronics manufacturer. The Japanese firm soon became the supplier‘s first client. In the several years following, the firm slowly grew its business in the domestic market. In the middle 1990s, the firm established an alliance with a Fortune Global 500 Japanese technology firm, and started to more aggressively expand its international business. In the early 2000s, the firm founded overseas subsidiaries in the United States and Japan. In the mid-2000s, the firm formed close business relationships with several Fortune Global 500 firms based in the United States and Europe, and rapidly grew its presence in the West. In recent years, the firm had been consistently ranked as a global top 100 IT service supplier and a major player in China. In 2011, the firm employed over 10,000 people, generated over 500 million USD revenue, and had strong brand names inChina and Japan with growing recognition in Western markets.
3.2 Data Collection and Analysis
From 2006 to 2011, a total of 95 interviews were conducted with the 13 suppliers. Each interview lasted between 45 minutes and 3 hours, with the average length of approximately 1.5 hours. The interviews were semi-structured, allowing for collection of both factual information, such as major events in the firm‘s history, and narrative data. Most of the questions asked were open-ended, allowing the informants to describe and explain stories related to the firm‘s internationalization. An interview guide was used to ensure the completeness of data. The interview guide had two versions. One version was for senior-level managers who had been involved in the firm‘s overall strategic decision-making. This version had four main sections, including the supplier‘s major markets, the supplier‘s internationalization process, the rationale behind the supplier‘s entry and expansion in different markets, and the supplier‘s future 第 38 页 共 62 页
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安徽工业大学 毕业论文
plans. The other version was for middle-level managers, and had an additional section on how the supplier‘s overall internationalization decisions were implemented within, and influenced by, the informant‘s business unit. Appendix A lists the key questions from the interview guide.
Specifically, in the first part of the study, 60in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted at Supplier A. These interviews were spread across the entire time span of the study, from 2006 to 2011, with most interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010. Altogether, the author paid five visits to the firm‘s headquarters and largest subsidiary, both located in Northeast China. After several initial interviews, Supplier A allowed the author to systematically select informants. The selected informants spanned multiple managerial levels, from top executives such as CEOs of the North American and Japanese subsidiaries to middle-level managers such as project leaders. The informants covered all major business lines, including divisions servicing Japanese, U.S., and domestic markets, as well as corporate-wide functions such as human resources and international business development. Some informants oversaw multiple divisions such as both Japanese and U.S. business lines. Snowball and opportunistic sampling was also used in some cases.
The other 12 suppliers, B through M, mostly served as literal replication for Supplier A (e.g., Leonard-Barton 1990). Specifically, in the second part of the study, at each of the three IT suppliers, B, D, and E, six interviews were conducted with the firm‘s top and middle-level managers. In the third part of the study, one or a few top-level executives, and some middle-level managers in some cases, were interviewed at each of the remaining nine suppliers. The author also visited the headquarters of each supplier with the exception of Suppliers F and I.
To reduce informant bias, at all suppliers, the interview data were triangulated whenever possible. At Supplier A, including informants from different organizational levels, business lines, and functional areas helped reduce retrospective bias (Siedler 1974). In the summer of 2009, the author spent over a month staying in the ―software park‖ where Supplier A‘s headquarters were located. The software park was owned by Supplier A and encompassed the firm‘s global headquarters, several software development labs, and training centers, as well as dorms for junior-level employees and the residences of some top-level executives. During this month, the author conducted observations of the firm‘s daily operations, including business meetings, manager training sessions, a speech by the firm‘s founder and CEO, and product launch events. In 2011, the author attended the largest anniversary celebration event in Supplier A‘s history, during which the firm‘s earliest and most important clients were invited to review their experience with the firm. This event provided valuable information on the firm‘s evolution.
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安徽工业大学 毕业论文
For all 13 suppliers, the interview data were also triangulated with secondary data (Yin 2003). Collected secondary data included suppliers‘ internal documents, such as marketing and sales presentations and project reports, and public information, such as press releases and annual reports, published news articles, books, and reports from industry associations and government entities. Another important source of information was the annual Chinese International Software and Information Service Fair (see CISIS 2011), the major IT outsourcing industry conference in China. The author attended this conference in 2009, 2010, and 2011 to observe presentations and roundtable discussions by top decision makers of some of the suppliers studied, as well as government officials and industry analysts. The immersion in the suppliers‘industry enabled the author to not only acquire additional information, but also obtain an intuitive understanding of the suppliers‘ internal and external environments.
Inductive techniques were applied to analyze the qualitative data from multiple cases (Bansal and Corley 2011; Eisenhardt1989; Miles and Huberman 1994; Strauss and Corbin 1997).Of the 95 interviews, 85 were conducted in Chinese,9 in English, and 1 in Japanese (through an interpreter). The inter-views were transcribed and then translated into English by the author, who is fluent in English and Chinese. Data analysis followed the four-level approach suggested by Pettigrew (1990). First, for each supplier, the interview transcripts and secondary data were triangulated and synthesized into an―analytical chronology,‖ which described the supplier‘s history, background, and growth strategies for different markets. Second, each analytical chronology was abstracted and restructured into a ―diagnostic case‖ that focused on addressing the paper‘s key theme: how does the supplier enter and expand in different markets? Third, the diagnostic case was further inductively analyzed. The themes that emerged during the analysis were linked to the broader literature on international business and IT outsourcing to generate a ―theoretical case‖ that included preliminary findings. Finally, cross-case analysis was conducted to compare themes and concepts from multiple cases, and to refine the theoretical findings. The four levels of analysis were overlapping in terms of timing. Data analysis also iterated with data collection.The 60 interviews with Supplier A were conducted throughout the entire time span of this research project. Most theoretical insights initially emerged from Supplier A. Suppliers B to M were mostly used as literal replication to confirm findings from Supplier A. Discrepancies between Suppler A and the other suppliers were explored through additional, increasingly fine-grained interviews that assisted in revising and refining findings. Multiple iterations of the four levels of analysis were conducted to incrementally develop the findings, until theoretical models that fit most cases were derived (Yin 2003). The following sections elaborate findings on the suppliers‘ internationalization behavior and rationale.
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