The persistence and transfer of learning in industrial settings
Management Science
Organizational learning curve in software installation: an empirical investigation
Information and Management
Determinants of information technology outsourcing: a cross-sectional analysis
Journal of Management Information Systems
A descriptive study on the outsourcing of information systems functions
Information and Management
Productivity and information technology: the elusive connection
Management Science
Employment outsourcing in information systems
Communications of the ACM
Process Improvement, Quality, and Learning Effects
Management Science
Coordinating Investment, Production, and Subcontracting
Management Science
How the Learning Curve Affects CASE Tool Adoption
IEEE Software
Contracts in Offshore Software Development: An Empirical Analysis
Management Science
A transaction cost model of IT outsourcing
Information and Management
Information systems outsourcing: a survey and analysis of the literature
ACM SIGMIS Database
Information systems outsourcing: a study of pre-event firm characteristics
Journal of Management Information Systems
The impact of offshore outsourcing on IT workers in developed countries
Communications of the ACM - Spam and the ongoing battle for the inbox
Just Right Outsourcing: Understanding and Managing Risk
Journal of Management Information Systems
The Choice of Sourcing Mechanisms for Business Processes
Information Systems Research
A Learning Model of Information Technology Outsourcing: Normative Implications
Journal of Management Information Systems
SAICSIT '10 Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists
Should We Go Our Own Way? Backsourcing Flexibility in IT Services Contracts
Journal of Management Information Systems
Transactive directories of organizational memory: Towards a working data model
Information and Management
Journal of Global Information Management
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In this paper, we present an economic learning model that helps to formalize the complex relationships among an offshoring firm's knowledge levels, production costs, and coordination costs. Specifically, we model a domestic firm's use of a selective offshore strategy (i.e., offshoring only a portion of its information technology activities) to exploit, through IT investments or contractual provisions, the foreign vendor's large, scale-driven repository of production knowledge. We illustrate the conditions under which knowledge transfers during offshoring may reduce a domestic firm's in-house production costs, leading to total cost savings in both the short term and the long term. Alternatively, when knowledge transfers are not sufficiently large, some short-lived offshoring projects may generate substantial cost savings to the domestic firm; however, long-lived offshoring projects may cause a disruption in the knowledge supply chain, resulting in substantial losses in the later stages of the project. A firm that fails to realize the costs associated with such a disruption soon enough in the project life may find itself locked into a disadvantageous offshoring agreement without any recourse. However, a domestic firm may be able to overcome a disruption in its knowledge supply chain by exploiting the learning-by-doing production knowledge generated by the foreign vendor's economies of scale. The managerial implications derived from our learning model may help guide firms as they consider the impacts of offshore contracts and knowledge management investments on firm knowledge, production costs, and coordination costs.