Three Essays on Chinese IT Service Industry: Capability Development, Internationalization Strategy, and Cultural Templates

Leading Chinese technology firms, from automobile manufacturer to information service provider, are evolving into some of the world's most innovative and competitive players, and dramatically changing the global business landscape. What underlies the rise of these firms is China's national strategy of transforming itself from a low-cost manufacturing-oriented society to a value-added knowledge-driven economy. The information technology (IT) service industry in particular, especially IT service export, has been increasingly recognized by the Chinese government as a key to this transformation. China's IT service industry has unique characteristics. First, Japan is China's major offshore client, while China is Japan's biggest software outsourcing base and has a long history of providing IT services to Japanese firms. Second, China's overall IT service industry is still mostly driven by China's vast and dynamic domestic market. Third, in the past five years, the Chinese IT service industry has been growing rapidly, and leading vendors have been actively expanding their business in the Western markets and have built diverse client portfolios that include Japanese, Western, and domestic firms. China's IT service industry in this rapid transition phase presents a good opportunity to extend our understanding of the emergence and evolution of knowledge-intensive business service firms, especially those from developing countries. The goal of this research is to conceptualize how IT service vendors develop capabilities while entering and expanding in multiple markets. To answer this question, I interviewed top and middle managers from thirteen leading Chinese IT service vendors, including almost all of the most globally recognized Chinese vendors. Through qualitative analysis, I explore how these firms develop service capabilities through their interaction with clients from diverse markets, how these firms make decisions on whether and how to enter different markets, and how these firms are able to manage effectively in a culturally-diverse environment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]