M.B.A. / The following study concerns Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. More specifically, it gives a brief description of what Knowledge Management is; the different types and phases, the economics and strategies, different drivers, the outcomes, critical success factors, the benefits, frameworks and the influence that Knowledge Management has on competitiveness and innovation in the workplace. The topic is concluded with a discussion around technologies for enabling Knowledge Management. Also discussed in the study is the definition of Outsourcing, the different theories, critical success factors, drivers and moving from traditional to transformational Outsourcing. Mention is also made about some of the obstacles and problems associated with Outsourcing and the different prescriptive models around. Lastly, the determinants of organisational adoption and the stages of the Outsourcing framework are discussed in depth. The original decision was to develop a questionnaire and distribute it throughout the company, Business Connexion, a leader in the IT Outsourcing industry. However, due to time constraints and the number of potential employees, approximately 4700, it was agreed upon to only target the staff members within the Outsourcing division. At the time of the questionnaire, the total number of employees was 539 and 127 participated in this study by responding via a URL link set up by Statkon, a division of the University of Johannesburg. The responses were fed into a database which produced the relevant results for this particular study. These questionnaires were designed to specifically measure the varying issues surrounding Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. Due to the fact that this study was implemented within only one division of the organisation, it is important to note that the findings of this study cannot be generalised, thus providing an opportunity for future comparative research.

M.Comm. / Changes occur rapidly in the Information Technology (IT) environment. It can be very costly to keep up with these rapid changes and at the same time specialist IT skills are hard to come by. Companies have to re-strategize to maintain their competitive advantages. This strategic business concept suggests that management must focus on specialisation, expertise and excellence. In an increasingly competitive and technological advanced world, business focus has shifted from simply minimising costs to maximising revenue. Companies are now focussing on their core competencies and are sourcing their non-core competencies to external providers (vendors). By distancing themselves from these non-core competencies, companies can focus their energy on areas where they have a competitive advantage. Companies enter into outsourcing arrangement's because they believe a vendor is better equipped to perform their IT functions. Outsourcing has become one of the most powerful, organisation-shaping management tools. For the customer outsourcing involves a proper definition of requirements, a detailed analysis and evaluation of potential vendors, developing the pricing structure and managing the outsourcing arrangement. The vendor needs to deliver a service according to specified service levels to which penalties and rewards are tied. An interdependency exists between the customer and the vendor. Change in the one affects the other. One of the key components for a successful outsourcing arrangement is that a company must never outsource the management of their Information Technology processes.

Wong Wai Chi Mavis. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-112). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / List of Tables --- p.x / List of Figures --- p.xiii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Research Focus --- p.4 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Theoretical Models --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Transaction Cost Theory --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Limitations of the TCT --- p.14 / Chapter 3. --- Outsourcing Framework --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1 --- Motivation --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Infrastructure --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Implication --- p.29 / Chapter 3.4 --- Limitations of the framework --- p.29 / Chapter 3.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.31 / Chapter 4. --- Single Vendor Approach --- p.33 / Chapter 4.1 --- Modeling Considerations --- p.35 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Fixed cost for insourcing and outsourcing jobs --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Expected extra manufacturing costs --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- Vendor Performance Matrix --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Coordination costs among the jobs --- p.39 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- Independence of the terms --- p.40 / Chapter 4.2 --- Quantitative Model --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3 --- Numerical Example --- p.44 / Chapter 4.4 --- Managerial Implications --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- The importance of the co-relation parameter --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Penalty Scheme --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Price Changes --- p.50 / Chapter 4.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.54 / Chapter 5. --- Multiple Vendor Approach --- p.56 / Chapter 5.1 --- Modeling Considerations --- p.57 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Fixed cost for insourcing and outsourcing jobs --- p.57 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Expected extra manufacturing costs --- p.58 / Chapter 5.1.2.1 --- Vendor Performance Matrix --- p.58 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Coordination costs among the jobs --- p.60 / Chapter 5.1.4 --- Independence of the terms --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2 --- Quantitative Model --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- Numerical Example --- p.66 / Chapter 5.4 --- Managerial Implications --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Penalty Scheme --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Limited resources of the vendors --- p.71 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Limiting the power of the vendors --- p.74 / Chapter 5.4.4 --- Competitive market --- p.76 / Chapter 5.4.5 --- The same purchasing prices --- p.79 / Chapter 5.4.6 --- Evaluation of vendors' performance --- p.82 / Chapter 5.4.6.1 --- Data Envelopment Analysis --- p.82 / Chapter 5.4.6.2 --- Vendor selection problem --- p.83 / Chapter 5.4.7 --- Make the unfair fair --- p.84 / Chapter 5.4.8 --- Applications --- p.84 / Chapter 5.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.85 / Chapter 6. --- Future Directions --- p.87 / Chapter 6.1 --- Extension to heuristic method --- p.87 / Chapter 6.2 --- Economy of scales --- p.88 / Chapter 6.3 --- Data Envelopment Analysis --- p.89 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Vendor selection process --- p.89 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Outsourcing decisions --- p.90 / Chapter 6.4 --- Vendors' point of view in winning the contracts --- p.90 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Do not know the model formulation --- p.90 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Know the model formulation --- p.91 / Chapter 6.5 --- Risk Analysis --- p.91 / Chapter 6.6 --- Outsourcing failure --- p.92 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.96 / Appendix A --- p.101 / Appendix B --- p.103 / Appendix C --- p.104 / Bibliography --- p.106

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--European Business School, International University Schloss Reichartshausen, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Raymond E. Franck, Francois Melese. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45). Also available online.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-106).

Firms increasingly disaggregate business processes and source them on a global basis, either intra-firm or from external vendors. This dissertation examines two relevant strategic choices for business process sourcing: the choice of sourcing mechanisms and the choice of contract types. First a comprehensive choice model is proposed to incorporate different perspectives of transaction cost economics (TCE), resource-based view (RBV) and modular systems theory for the choice of sourcing mechanisms. The results indicate that modular design characteristics such as modularity and IT detachability of business processes have significant impact on firms’ sourcing choices. The findings show that at higher level of process modularity, domestic outsourcing is more likely while offshore outsourcing is more preferred at lower level of process modularity. Also domestic outsourcing is preferred over offshore outsourcing when processes are tightly coupled with the IT infrastructure. The results suggest that offshore outsourcing is a different governance mode from domestic outsourcing. It may be a viable choice for firms that are looking for capabilities and adaptation willingness to improve the modular design of a process and to meet firm-specific needs, but the nonmodular design of IT infrastructure may inhibit such attempts. The dissertation then examined how firms select appropriate types of contract once outsourcing decisions are made. Three types of contracts were considered: Fixedprice (FP), Cost-plus (CP) and Time & Materials (T&M), which provide different levels of cost-reduction incentive, completeness of contract design and flexibility to change. The findings suggest that business characteristics impact coordination and negotiation costs and thus the choice of contract types. Higher coordination costs (the costs of managing interdependence) lead to higher probability of selecting contracts with high incentives and detailed service descriptions such as FP contracts while high negotiation costs (the costs of opportunistic behavior in ex post adaptation) increase firms’ preference to contracts with more flexibility to change such as T&M contracts. Further, the selection bias of the choice of sourcing mechanism on the choice of contract types was identified. Firms that select outsourcing are more likely to adopt contracts with high level of incentive and contract completeness. / text

Facilities management (FM) is a fast emerging industry and a field that deserves a far greater degree of academic inquiry. The common practice of FM service outsourcing and the lack of a theoretical unpinning create a gap in the field of FM. This study is initiated by the phenomena in FM service outsourcing: the frequent change in service providers appears to be common in FM service outsourcing. This urges a study on the outsourcing relationship in the field of FM. The issues that influence FM service outsourcing relationships vary according to different economic climates, organizational resources, FM service characteristics, etc. This study aims to investigate FM service outsourcing relationships from human interaction perspective as humans are regarded to be an important element in FM service outsourcing relationships. From a human interaction perspective, this study sheds lights on the relationship factors and their manifestation. Previous studies on outsourcing have developed a series of relationship factors that influence outsourcing relationships. However, the significance of these relationship factors varies according to different types of outsourcing relationships. In addition, the manifestation of relationship factors is not sufficiently elaborated in those studies. According to social exchange theory, relationship factors are defined as norms that reflect the influential attributes of a relationship or characteristics of the outsourcing process. Therefore, it is postulated that trust, openness, flexibility, coordination, cooperation and integration are influential relationship factors that affect FM service outsourcing relationships with support of social exchange theory. To test the hypothesis, empirical studies had been carried out within the Hong Kong Facilities Management Industry. Qualitative research approach was adopted in the empirical studies – in-depth interviews and case studies were conducted. Findings reveal that trust, openness, flexibility, coordination, cooperation and integration are significantly reflected in the interviews with FM managers. The manifestation of relationship factors is correlated with each other. It is found that trust, openness and flexibility manifest themselves through the process of coordination, cooperation and integration. The empirical results of this study have highlighted significant issues for FM service outsourcing and provided profound implications for FM managers in managing FM service outsourcing relationships. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study is about contract evaluation and selection in an environment where there exist two or more parties, namely a producer and one or more outsourcing companies offering different contract options. The producer faces dynamic deterministic demand, which is known at the beginning of the planning horizon, and has to decide on the quantities of production, outsourcing, inventory carrying, and backorder. Among these decisions, the producer has the opportunity of subcontracting from a set of options offered by the subcontractors with possibly distinct contract terms. The contract options are in terms of length of the contract, fixed and variable costs associated with order placed, delivery lead-time and capacity guaranteed for use. A mathematical model is used for the evaluation of available options and for the selection of the ones in order to minimize cost incurred by the producer. The model provides desired quantities of production, inventory carrying and backorder, and also determines how different contract options will beused through the planning horizon. Extensive experimentation is performed using different factors affecting the optimal solution of the model in specific instances. These results are used in order to come up with a framework where various contracting schemes for subcontracting can be obtained. This framework can assist the producer in the decision of alternative courses of actions to be taken by him as a function of contract terms.