Research On Interactive Relation Among Knowledge Boundary,Transactive Memory System And Project Performance Of Software Outsourcing

With the deepening of economic globalization, information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing services outsourcing is booming, the international software outsourcing market that centering on IT is particularly evident. China’s software outsourcing business is showing a strong momentum of development, and China has become important to undertake in the global software outsourcing market. In the process of project implementation, the vendors need to establish an. effective knowledge integration model with clients, and combine existing knowledge with project management knowledge from clients, in order to guarantee the success of software outsourcing projects. Due to transactive memory system has a certain advantage in interpretation of team learning and team collaboration, many scholars have confirmed that TMS has a positive impact on project performance. Knowledge boundaries are important factors in the process of knowledge integration. We can use knowledge boundaries to find and analyze different difficulties in the process of knowledge integration, and we also make recommendations to achieve effective knowledge integration by analyzing knowledge boundaries. Therefore, this study suggests that transactive memory system as an effective knowledge integration model could affect outsourcing project performance by bridging knowledge boundary.Based on the prior theories and researches, this research introduces knowledge boundary theory into our model and attempt to verify whether TMS could affect outsourcing project performance by bridging knowledge boundary. Based on the review of literatures, we built the theoretical model and proposed the corresponding research hypotheses. Based on the investigation interview of several vendor managers of software outsourcing, we survey data of180software outsourcing project teams from Dalian Software Park. Firstly, we use SPSS19.0software by descriptive statistics, and then we tested the theoretical mode and hypotheses we proposed by structure equation mode based on the partial leas squares (PLS). The main conclusions supported by data analysis as follows:(1) For the software outsourcing teams, transactive memory system is an effective knowledge integration model, and it can effectively promote the integration of the knowledge between clients and vendors. Especially for the vendors, TMS can provide an effective ways to acquire and learn knowledge, thereby promoting software project performance. (2) Knowledge boundaries provide us with an effective explanation about how TMS affect project performance. For the members of vendor, the collaborative behavior based on TMS can overcome the barriers in the process of knowledge integration, and achieve knowledge boundaries spanning; on the other hand, knowledge boundaries spanning can promote outsourcing project performance. Therefore, TMS could affect outsourcing project performance by bridging knowledge boundaries.The conclusions above can help promote the application development of transactive memory system theory and the knowledge boundaries theory in software outsourcing project management. They also can provide theoretical contributions and management implications for the vendor in the software outsourcing industry.