Rocking and Rebalancing the Boat: How Offshoring Elicits Reconfiguration of the Service Production System

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    Abstract

    Service production systems can be seen as a structure consisting of task execution, resources executing tasks and the service output received by the client. Offshoring acts as an exogenous shock to such a service production system. Drawing on practice theory and applying a multiple case methodology to a large, multinational shipping company we investigate how offshoring to an emerging economy leads to misalignment of the system. We then find that agents undertake actions, both top-down and bottom up initiatives, to attempt to realign the service production system. We develop a set of propositions that explains how structures and agents interact to deal with misalignment and how service output changes due to offshoring. The major contribution of this paper is that is provides a theoretically grounded explanation of how service production systems evolve over time. We also contribute to an understanding of the impact of offshoring and to practice
    theory.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business : Local Contexts in Global Business
    EditorsKlaus Meyer, Tunga Kiyak
    Place of PublicationEast Lansing, MI
    PublisherAcademy of International Business
    Publication date2014
    Pages256
    Publication statusPublished - 2014
    EventAIB 2014 Annual Meeting : Local Context in Global Business - Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, Canada
    Duration: 23 Jun 201426 Jun 2014
    Conference number: 56
    http://aib.msu.edu/events/2014/

    Conference

    ConferenceAIB 2014 Annual Meeting
    Number56
    LocationWestin Bayshore
    Country/TerritoryCanada
    CityVancouver
    Period23/06/201426/06/2014
    Internet address
    SeriesAcademy of International Business. Annual Meeting. Proceedings
    Volume56
    ISSN2078-4430

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