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

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.

Conflict and Team Atmosphere in Teams Engaged in Outsourcing

“…In addition, we find that task complexity has a negative relationship with team performance. This confirmed prior findings on task complexity [8,30]. We also find that team conflict (both relationship and task) has a negative relationship with team atmosphere.…”

“…Coordination is critical to performance of highly interdependent tasks [49]. Two methods for mitigating interdependence are modularization and information sharing [30,51]. Modularization involves restructuring the work to minimize the interdependence.…”

Suprimento global de serviços de conhecimento e inovação: uma revisão integrativa da literatura

“…There is evidence that investments in structured processes and corresponding process-based learning activities can help overcome the inherent difficulties of work dispersion (RAMASUBBU, MITHAS, KRISHNAN, KEMERER;. Along those same lines, strategies are proposed to facilitate coordination between onshore and offshore teams, such as procedural coordination, careful specification and partitioned tasks, as well as implementing mechanisms to overcome communication gaps (ANDERSSON, PEDERSEN;ARON, JAYANTY, PATHAK;HOLZWEBER, MATTSSON, CHADEE, RAMAN;2011;HOWELLS, GAGLIARDI, MALIK;MANI, SRIKANTH, BHARADWAJ;MIRANI, 2007).…”

Special Section Introduction—Information, Technology, and the Changing Nature of Work

“…In their paper, "Efficacy of R&D Work In Offshore Captive Centers: An Empirical Study of Task Characteristics, Coordination Mechanisms, and Performance," Mani et al (2014) analyze survey data from 132 captive, foreign multinational research and development (R&D) centers in India to examine innovative labor across distance. Performance data from projects using different types of technology-enabled coordination to manage work across multiple locations shows that modularization across locations is not optimal for tasks that are not analyzable, routinized, or common to captive centers.…”

“…The order of these papers progresses from broad but detailed grounded theory in Leonardi (2014), in Kallinikos and Tempini (2014), and in Aanestad et al (2014). It next moves to the more focused analyses of changes in innovation work in Mani et al (2014) and in the paper by Moreno and Terwiesch (2014) on the effects of reputation on the work of buyers and sellers in an online marketplace. This is a progression of topics, from increasing knowledge of social relations, to provision of new information for decisions, to creating new forms of work across scale, to mediating complex work coordination tasks, to influencing how information about work outputs and work competencies are used to allocate work to different actors.…”