Indian Software Services Industry Research Articles

Early life experiences and their impact on effective learning and development

Purpose This paper highlights the role of an individual’s early life experiences (formative years’ experiences) in the learning and development (L&D) journey of their careers. Hence, it is useful for the individual managers as well as organizations to better understand and improve the effectiveness of their L&D processes. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws insights from a small subset of the data collected as a part of a larger study on leadership development processes in the context of medium-sized rapid growth organizations in the Indian software services industry. Findings The respondents, i.e. senior managers in the software services firms, shared some of their experiences in their formative years (family/school/university/career) which they felt had a huge impact on the way their careers had shaped up. These stories spanned across diverse experiences like values instilled in childhood by parents/grandparents, influence of schoolteachers, friends and peers during growth years, academic performance during college/university days, and successful or positive experiences during early career years. Originality/value The paper can be useful to managers in their career development, as well as to organizations in making their L&D processes more effective. It provides a more nuanced understanding of how the experiences in formative years can help improve one’s development and performance in organizations; while the organizations allow, and create, conducive environment for the managers to harness these experiences gained early in life.

Involving the Indian Software Services Industry in the Free and Open Source Software World

FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) has taken the world by storm in the last decade. The emergence of FLOSS has been exemplified by the rapid rise of the GNU/Linux operating system, which has made inroads in computer systems ranging from supercomputers to handheld devices and mobile phones. FLOSS technologies have been embraced by almost all major computing vendors, who are putting substantial efforts and leveraging these technologies.A number of Indian Information Technology Service Companies have been providing solutions based on the certain FLOSS technologies to their customers and also using it internally, mostly on an ad-hoc basis. There is often no formal policy in place, nor a roadmap on how to go forward in this fast emerging, rule changing, arena.We propose an overarching strategy — the Foundation and Four Pillars view that will enable the Indian Software Services Companies to truly leverage FLOSS while moving forward.

The Business Group as an Information Resource: An investigation of business group affiliation in the Indian software services industry

The Business Group as an Information Resource: An investigation of business group affiliation in the Indian software services industry

Business Groups as Information Resource: An Investigation of Business Group Affiliation in the Indian Software Services Industry

Although business groups benefit firms when markets fail, does group affiliation continue to be an advantage for firms in deregulated, globally competitive industries? I argue that affiliation allows firms to tap into the knowledge and connections of sister affiliates. This enables them to attract clients from more industries and foreign markets than can unaffiliated firms, and to attain higher international sales. Using data from the Indian software industry, I find support for these hypotheses, but only for 2000-02, when competition increased as a result of new deregulation. These results suggest business groups continue to provide benefits to group-affiliated firms, including information on market opportunities and reputation signaling to clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operational and Tactical Challenges Faced by Indian Software Firms

The Indian software services industry has been spectacularly successful, growing at over 50% annually for several years. However, the nature of markets and technology is changing. Other changes include rising salaries in India, fast growing higher end markets, talent shortage worldwide, and need for fester implementation of projects. However, for Indian companies a key change could be the growth of market segments that are not so price sensitive, and price based competition from China, Mexico, Philippines and other countries. In this paper, we have described important unique challenges faced by Indian service companies. These include challenges arising from sustained high growth, operating as a low cost service provider, challenge of overseas development, managing multiple agencies in a single project, cultural challenges of operating in overseas markets, and entry barriers to higher end value added work. Strategic responses include building brands, re-positioning, changing client and market perceptions, and deciding whether to move up the value chain. However, Indian firms also need to make operational and tactical responses. We describe and assess current responses made by Indian firms. In general they are inadequate, largely because of recent success and high growth. Thus Indian firms feel there is no need to worry. This might include a different sales and marketing approach, and training sales people for negotiating and getting better prices and rates. It might also include re-training software professionals to manage clients and communications better and to handle client requests for changes in specifications. It is important for the firm to identify talent and put it in the right projects. It requires tracking of individual employees, and their current skills and experience. It also means keeping track of upcoming projects and their requirements so that the right people can be put on the right job. Few Indian companies use systematic processes while executing projects. Putting the right processes in place helps to cut down re-work, improve quality and reduce project execution time. Finally, firms might also have to change some of the beliefs that employees hold about themselves, markets, clients, and the company they work for. These responses would help firms to improve operational efficiency. However, in the long run, it will also help to improve brand image and sustain marketing efforts to reposition the company higher in the value chain.

Changes in Human Resource Practices in large Rapid Growth Firms in the Indian Software Services Industry

Changes in Human Resource Practices in large Rapid Growth Firms in the Indian Software Services Industry

Contingent Effects of Quality Signaling: Evidence from the Indian Offshore IT Services Industry

We examine the heterogeneous returns to third-party quality signals in the context of the Indian software services industry. Prior theory has argued that quality certification is important in markets characterized by information asymmetry. However, there is limited understanding of the contingent factors that influence the efficacy of the quality signal. We focus on capability maturity model (CMM) certification, which is granted on the basis of a rigorous audit of software vendor's internal quality-oriented software construction practices, as a signal of unobservable quality. Drawing upon prior research in strategy and economics, we theorize that the impacts of CMM certification on a vendor's export performance are conditional on factors reflecting the vendor's strategy (diversification and location) and its competitive environment (the extent of CMM penetration in the vendor's competition). Analysis of panel data supports our predictions related to the contingent value of CMM certification, and shows that a software service provider gains more from certification in terms of its software exports when its service offerings are diversified, when it chooses to locate away from a cluster of other software service firms, and when the extent of CMM penetration in the competition is low. This study extends prior research in the information value of a quality signal on a firm's demand side that has, for the most part, focused solely on direct effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for the strategic trade-offs that managers of software service firms need to make.

Novel Organization Form as a Growth Driver

Scholars have conceptualized the competitive landscape confronting modem organizations as business ecosystems. An ecosystem is well suited to describe the complex interdependencies that exist among specialist organizations operating in a dynamic environment. Is a business ecosystem similar to a network form of organization? We do not think so. Based on our research on the relational network that exists between Indian software service organizations and their clients, we distill two features that distinguish a business ecosystem from traditional networks. These are (1) the ability of the relationship to simultaneously accommodate collaboration - a definitive feature of networks (Powell, 1990) with competition, a definitive feature of markets and (2) the involuntary nature of the interdependencies that prevail amoog the network players. We present our arguments through description and analysis of a novel organization form witnessed in the Indian software services industry - the Offshore Development Centre. In the process, we locate the competitive advantage of Indian software services organizations in their ability to create innovative organization structures and processes that enabled them to achieve rapid scaling even in the face of business volatility and technology chum.

Human resource issues, challenges and strategies in the Indian software industry

This paper explores the burgeoning Indian software services industry by focusing on one of its critical challenges: human resource management. Using in-depth interviews of various stakeholders from a representative range of Indian software services organisations, the authors investigate characteristics of Indian software professionals and some of the key human-resource related issues and challenges in the industry; namely, voluntary attrition, reluctance to make a transition from technical to management positions, lack of managerial skills, difficulties with teamwork, work preferences and maintaining work-family balance. Finally, organisational strategies to effectively manage and motivate software professionals, such as moving up the value chain, creating learning opportunities, bifurcated career path, facilitating wealth generation and conducive work environment are explored.

The Indian software services industry

The Indian software exports have grown in spectacular fashion. Its success has, for the most part, been a combination of resource endowments, a mixture of benign neglect and active encouragement from a normally intrusive government, and good timing. The bulk of the Indian software exports have consisted of fairly mundane services such as low level programming and maintenance. The marked reliance on access to low cost human capital has prompted considerable scepticism about the ability of the Indian software industry to sustain its performance, given the rapid growth in the demand for engineers and the relatively inelastic supply of engineers. This paper reports on the results of research on the Indian software industry. We use a variety of sources, including a questionnaire survey of Indian software firms, and field visits and interviews with industry participants, observers, and US based clients. Although, maintaining the current rate of growth will pose a number of challenges, these challenges are not insurmountable. Not only can the available pool of human capital be expanded by tapping and training the very large pool of English-speaking college graduates, the leading Indian firms are making strong efforts to move up the value chain by acquiring better software project management capability and deeper knowledge of business domains, and reducing costs and improving quality by developing superior methodologies and tools. Moreover, the greatest impact of the software industry on the Indian economy may well be indirect, in its role as an exemplar of the new business organisational form and as an inspiration to other entrepreneurs.