Managing effective knowledge acquisition in outsourcing alliances: A suppliers perspective

Abstract

Knowledge acquisition through international outsourcing alliances often plays a key in increasing a firm’s technology capability. However, knowledge acquisition is not an easy process, as it relates to the firm’s learning ability, the quality of the partnership, cross-national communication, and knowledge ambiguity, etc. Few studies discuss knowledge acquisition from the perspective of suppliers in newly industrialized economies, and often overlook the usefulness of information technology in the learning process. As a result, there are still some research gaps on this topic. Therefore, this study adopts the supplier point of view to explore the differences between suppliers with more or less effective knowledge acquisition. Using a sample of 204 cases of international outsourcing alliances, this study shows that learner characteristics, partnerships, and the use of information technology are the primary factors affecting supplier knowledge acquisition. This study also investigates the different learning patterns of tacit knowledge acquisition and explicit knowledge acquisition. Key words: suppliers, international outsourcing alliance, knowledge acquisition, learner characteristics, partnership, informational technology.