Efficacy of R&D Work in Offshore Captive Centers: An Empirical Study of Task Characteristics, Coordination Mechanisms, and Performance

Deepa Mani (), Kannan Srikanth () and Anandhi Bharadwaj ()
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Deepa Mani: Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032, India
Kannan Srikanth: Lee Kong Chain School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore 178899
Anandhi Bharadwaj: Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

Information Systems Research, 2014, vol. 25, issue 4, 846-864

Abstract: Seizing the latest technological advances in distributed work, an increasing number of firms have set up offshore captive centers (CCs) in emerging economies to carry out sophisticated R&D work. We analyze survey data from 132 R&D CCs established by foreign multinational companies in India to understand how firms execute distributed innovative work. Specifically, we examine the performance outcomes of projects using different technology-enabled coordination strategies to manage their interdependencies across multiple locations. We find that modularization of work across locations is largely ineffective when the underlying tasks are less routinized, less analyzable, and less familiar to the CC. Coordination based on information sharing across locations is effective when the CC performs tasks that are less familiar to it. A key contribution of our work is the explication of the task contingencies under which coordination based on modularization versus information sharing yield differential performance outcomes.

Keywords: offshoring; captive centers; R&D; coordination; distributed work; modularization; information sharing; performance; knowledge-intensive work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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