Knowledge Transfer Planning and Execution in Offshore Outsourcing: An Applied Approach

In this paper, we report from a longitudinal project about knowledge transfer conducted in a major financial company headquartered in Denmark and an offshore development center located in Bangalore, India. We identify the main knowledge transfer challenges experienced by the case company. The challenges inform the conceptual design of a systematic five-step approach to the company’s knowledge transfer. Our main contribution is to illustrate how extant research can be applied to understand and solve the knowledge transfer challenges of a particular company in a way that fits with the outsourcing setup and the company culture. We also draw attention to the fact that client side managers play a crucial role in determining how and with what priority knowledge transfer can take place. Our research indicates that a first, important step towards ensuring successful knowledge transfer in outsourcing is to focus on the training and support of client side managers.