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This paper analyzes how information systems (IS) can serve as tools of neo-colonial control in offshore outsourcing of research and development work. It draws on critical work examining business and knowledge process outsourcing.

The paper reports an empirical study of how laboratory information management systems (LIMS) shape offshore outsourcing practices involving Western client firms and Indian contract research organizations (CROs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The study adopted a multi-actor perspective, involving interviews with representatives of Western clients, Indian CROs, system validation auditors, and software vendors. The analysis was iterative and interpretative, guided by postcolonial sensitivity to themes of power and control.

The study found that LIMS act as tools of neo-colonial control at three levels. As Western clients specify particular brands of LIMS, they create a hierarchy among local CROs and impact the development of the local LIMS industry. At inter-organizational level, LIMS shape relationships by allowing remote, real-time and retrospective surveillance of CROs’ work. At individual level, the ability of LIMS to support micro-modularizing of research leads to routinization of scientific discovery, negatively impacting scientists’ work satisfaction.

By examining multiple actors’ perceptions of IS, this paper looks beyond the rhetoric of system efficiency characteristic of most international business research. As it explores dynamics of power and control surrounding IS, it also questions the proposition that outsourcing of high-end work will move emerging economies upstream in the value chain.

This study aims to analyze how startups organize their purchasing activities to improve operative excellence and become attractive customers.

The authors use a two-phase exploratory approach with semistructured interviews and a World Café. In total, 20 startup purchasers and suppliers participated. It is an international study with participants from eight countries (Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, the UK and the USA).

The authors find that startups organize the purchasing function in five ways: partial outsourcing, transactional-oriented, strategic only, outsourced purchasing and full department. Each type has advantages and disadvantages regarding operative excellence. The authors identify type-specific antecedents to operative excellence: forecasting, payment habits, ordering process, contact accessibility and quick decision-making.

The value of this paper is that it offers entrepreneurs a framework to organize startup purchasing activities, including outsourcing options. Furthermore, it provides theoretical contributions that expand the topic of purchasing and supply organization and operative excellence to the startup context.

The value of this paper is that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to explore purchasing organization and operative excellence in startups.

Enterprise systems are commonly implemented by firms through outsourcing arrangements with software vendors. However, deriving benefits from these implementations has proved to be a challenge, and a great deal of variation has been observed in the extent of value generated for client and vendor firms. This research examines the role of co-specialization as a strategy to make the most out of outsourced enterprise systems. The authors develop hypotheses relating resource co-specialization with two indicators of success for implementation of enterprise software: (1) exchange success and (2) firm growth.

The hypotheses are tested using a unique panel data set of 175 firms adopting Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software, a type of enterprise system used for managing manufacturing and logistics. The authors identify organizational factors that support co-specialization and then examine how co-specialization is associated with enterprise software implementation success, controlling for the endogenous choice to co-specialize.

The empirical results suggest that resource co-specialization is positively associated with implementation success and that the two resource co-specialization pathways that are examined complement each other in providing performance benefits.

This paper contributes to the research literature on outsourcing. The study also provides a new empirical test using a unique data set of 175 firms adopting APS Software.

In today’s business settings, most firms strive to closely integrate their resources and activities with those of their business partners. However, these linkages tend to create lock-in effects when changes are needed. In such situations, firms need to generate new space for action. The purpose of this paper is twofold: analysis of potential action spaces for restructuring; and examination of how action spaces can be exploited and the consequences accompanying this implementation.

Network dynamics originate from changes in the network interdependencies. This paper is focused on the role of the three dual connections – actors–activities, actors–resources and activities–resources, identified as network vectors. In the framing of the study, these network vectors are combined with managerial action expressed in terms of networking and network outcome. This framework is then used for the analysis of major restructuring of the car industries in the USA and Europe at the end of the 1900s.

This study shows that the restructuring of the car industry can be explained by modifications in the three network vectors. Managerial action through changes of the vector features generated new action space contributing to the transition of the automotive network. The key to successful exploitation of action space was interaction – with individual business partners, in triadic constellations, as well as on the network level.

This paper presents a new view of network dynamics by relying on the three network vectors. These concepts were developed in the early 1990s. This far, however, they have been used only to a limited extent.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of knowledge risk management (KRM) on organizational sustainability and the role of innovativeness and agility in this relationship.

The study presents the results of a quantitative survey performed among 179 professionals from knowledge-intensive organizations dealing with knowledge risks and their management in organizations. Data included in this study are from both private and public organizations located all over the world and were collected through an online survey.

The results have confirmed that innovativeness and agility positively impact the sustainability of organizations; agility also positively impacts organizational innovativeness. The partial influence of KRM on both innovativeness and agility of organizations has been confirmed as well.

The paper findings contribute in different ways to the ongoing debates in the literature. First, they contribute to the general study of risk management by showing empirically its role in organizations in the given case of organizational sustainability. Second, by emphasizing the risks related to knowledge, this study contributes to emerging efforts highlighting the particular role of knowledge for sustained organizational development. Third, by linking KRM and organizational sustainability, this paper contributes empirically to building knowledge in this very recent field of study. This understanding is also useful for future development in the field of KM as a whole.

The paper lays the ground for both a deeper and more nuanced understanding of knowledge risks in organizations in general and regarding sustainability in particular. As such, the paper offers new food for thought for researchers dealing with the topics of knowledge risks, knowledge management and organizational risk management in general.

This paper takes a structured literature review (SLR) approach to identify gaps in the literature and suggest future research opportunities. It focuses on corporate governance (CG) performed outside the formal board of directors’ structure and examines research of alternative CG of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).

The authors use the SLR method to search the Scopus database, extracting and synthesising findings relating specifically to SMEs’ CG. These are tabulated and described using bibliometric software.

The authors highlight an absence of tailored theoretical approaches to understanding CG in SMEs, which differs from the governance of larger entities. They also find evidence of alternative governance structures in SME CG.

Further research should embrace management and other theoretical perspectives and expanded methodologies, nuances in understanding offered in contextualised settings and awareness of practical implications to better understand the specific setting of CG in SMEs.

SMEs seek to access the scarce resources and skills external to their formal CG structures. Regulators and resource providers should mobilise facilitation and training for this expansion.

The authors synthesise a large body of literature to extract findings specific to SMEs. A unique contribution is our focus on alternative forms of CG in SMEs. Evidence of alternative boards points to resolutions for human capital shortages in SMEs.

This paper investigates how the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) impacts upstream supply chain (SC) design and considers the influence of drivers and barriers towards the adoption.

Ten case studies investigating AM adoption by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in five industries were conducted. This research is driven by a literature-based framework, and the results are discussed according to the theory of transaction cost economics (TCE).

The case studies reveal four patterns of AM adoption that affect upstream SC design (due to changes in supply base or types of buyer–supplier relationships): make, buy, make and buy and vertical integration. A make or buy decision is based on the level of experience with the technology, on the AM application (rapid manufacturing, prototyping or tooling) and on the need of control over production. Other barriers playing a role in the decision are the high initial investments and the lack of skills and knowledge.

This paper shows how different decisions regarding AM adoption result in different SC designs, with a specific focus on the upstream SC and changes in the supply base. This research is among the first to provide empirical evidence on the impact of AM adoption on upstream SCs and to identify drivers of the make or buy decision when adopting AM through the theoretical lens of TCE.

The purpose of this paper is to structure existing research on knowledge management (KM) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to offer a comprehensive overview of research strands and topics in KM in SMEs to determine their evolution over time.

The paper, which is considered a follow-up literature review, is based on a systematic literature review that covers 180 scientific papers that were published since the review paper by Durst and Edvardsson in 2012 that covered 36 papers.

The findings of this review and those of the aforementioned review are brought together in the form of an overview that structures research on KM in SMEs based on themes that, in turn, allow the derivation of promising research directions and research questions aimed at structuring future research on KM in SMEs.

By combining the findings of this review with the findings from the review published in this journal in 2012, this paper offers, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive literature review on KM in SMEs produced to date.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how focal firms in supply networks manage weak and strong ties for exploration and exploitation innovation in mature industries. In doing so, the paper extends the understanding of how focal firms manage open innovation (OI).

The empirical base is a multiple case study conducted on three companies operating in mature industries in Europe.

Findings of this study reveal, analyze and explain a diverse set of OI practices in the supply networks of mature industries in which the focal firms integrate strong and weak supply ties to enhance innovation outcomes. This study provides a fine-grained view of the benefits of the additive and interactive effects of strong and weak ties in OI. More specifically, the analysis reveals an enhancing role of strong supply ties in exploration, which previously was associated solely with weak ties. Moreover, this study sheds light on the dominant and orchestrating roles of focal firms.

The findings provide insights to enhance OI practices beyond the limited role of the weak ties of the supply network and highlight the essential role of the strong supply ties in mature industries.

While previous studies have associated exploration with weak ties, findings of this study reveal that exploration-oriented activities in mature industries also extend to strong ties. In the strong ties of mature industries, this study finds there is not only the exploitation of existing knowledge but also the reconfiguration and innovation of products.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate both long-run and short-run dynamics among the software and services export, investment in information technology (IT) and GDP in India and to investigate the direction of the relationship among the given three macro-economic variables.

The time series data have been taken to investigate the long-run relationship exists among the variables. Annual data were collected from the NASSCOM Annual Reports, Planning Commission of India and Reserve Bank of India during the period 1980–2016. Cointegration and vector error correction model have been used for analyzing the causal relationship among investment in IT, software exports and GDP in India.

Cointegration results confirm that software and services export, investment in IT and GDP are cointegrated, implying that there exists the long-run equilibrium relationship among the given three macro-economic variables. Similarly, vector error correction mechanism Granger causality results hold that there is uni-directional long-run causality running from software and services export and investment in IT to GDP, implying that software and services export is an important determinant of economic growth in India.

The limitations of the paper are generalization of the results and proxy variable for IT investments.

The paper has implications for the expansion of market concentration, diversification of software and service exports, and investments in R&D for increasing competitiveness of the industry in the global market.

This paper focuses on originality in the analysis of the relationship among the given variables software exports, investment in the IT sector and GDP in India. All the work has been done in original by the authors and the work used have been acknowledged properly.