Spanning Boundaries in Offshore Outsourcing Firms: A Case Study on KM System Initiatives in Wipro Technologies

Abstract

Despite the increased attention on boundary spanning in organizations, we still know surprisingly little about how boundaries are formed and what spanning activities can be applied to the context of offshore outsourcing firms (OOFs). This paper examines the antecedents of boundary formation in OOFs and proposes that spanning activities can help OOFs to realize return from their IT investment in an effective and efficient manner. Our findings show that two theoretical models have been identified in this paper. The first model proposed that three boundaries are formed in the OOFs, namely structure, knowledge and subcultural boundaries. We explored the formation process and detailed with steps. The second model therefore is proposed to span these three boundaries and we have explored detailed mechanisms in this paper.

Keywords

boundary spanning / IT governance / boundary spanners / boundary objects