Field Studies in Offshoring and Process Standardization

Although business services outsourcing has grown dramatically in size and scope over the last decade, firms continue to encounter difficulties in managing and delivering services. An important choice for service providers is whether to use a standardized set of processes for service delivery across delivery centers. The standardization of processes through the implementation of frameworks such as the CMMI, TQM and ISO 9000 has become an established practice among manufacturing and software development firms. However, the role of process standardization in the delivery of business services such as accounting, procurement, and human resources has not been examined to a significant extent. In this doctoral dissertation, I examine a process improvement framework that is designed specifically for outsourcing service providers: the eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers, or eSCM-SP (Hyder et al, 2004a, 2004b). I have collected detailed archival data from an offshore delivery center of a large IT and business services firm that has implemented and received certification in the eSCM-SP. I examine the implementation of this model, and its implications for internal service delivery performance, in two empirical studies. It is challenging for global service providers to effectively deliver services to their customers. Process improvement frameworks promise consistent performance, better quality, and less rework. However, implementing such frameworks can be both difficult and costly. Organizations may choose to structure process improvement projects using multiple implementations to facilitate knowledge transfer within and across units. Further, while a variety of knowledge transfer mechanisms are available it is an open question as to whether such mechanisms actually improve implementation performance and whether these effects differ in initial and repeated implementations. In this study, I examine the implementation of process improvement frameworks from the perspective of knowledge transfer. Drawing upon Argote and Ingram's (2000) typology, I theorize that the use of tool-, team-, and task-based mechanisms to transfer process knowledge will lead to higher implementation performance, particularly in repeated implementations. However, I also hypothesize that these beneficial effects will be weakened by the extent to which the process knowledge transferred must be customized in these implementations. I evaluate my theoretical model using data collected in a field study of multiple implementations of a process improvement framework in two units of an offshore delivery center for a large IT and business services provider. The findings suggest that, for processes that do not require customization in repeated implementations, team-based mechanisms are as effective in the …