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Moving up the Global Value Chain: The Case of Chinese IT Service Firms

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Information Systems Outsourcing

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

In recent years, Chinese IT service suppliers have been actively expanding their business in three major markets: Japan, the United States, and the Chinese domestic market. This qualitative case study of thirteen major Chinese IT service firms conceptualizes the internationalization behavior and decision rationale of these suppliers. The findings show that some of these suppliers followed an incremental internationalization strategy, while others were “born global.” Both types of firms’ entry and growth in different markets consisted of the combination of a strategically-planned resource-seeking process and a highly flexible, opportunistic “bricolage” process. By dynamically oscillating between different strategy processes, these suppliers were able to rapidly grow in multiple markets and gradually move up the global value chain.

An earlier extended version appeared as Su, N. "Internationalization Strategies of Chinese IT Service Suppliers," MIS Quarterly (37:1), 2013, pp. 175–200.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ivey Business School, Western University, 1255 Western Road, London, ON, N6G 0N1, Canada

    Ning Su

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  1. Ning Su
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Business Administration, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Rudy Hirschheim

  2. LS ABWL und Wirtschaftsinformatik I, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Armin Heinzl

  3. Institute for Information Systems Dept of Information Engineering, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Jens Dibbern

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Su, N. (2014). Moving up the Global Value Chain: The Case of Chinese IT Service Firms. In: Hirschheim, R., Heinzl, A., Dibbern, J. (eds) Information Systems Outsourcing. Progress in IS. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43820-6_15

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