نقش قابلیت های مدیریت کیفیت در توانایی یادگیری سازمانی مبتنی بر بازار در حال توسعه:شواهد مطالعه موردی از برون سپاری فرآیند کسب و کار چهار شرکت هندی

Business-to-business marketing literature acknowledges the value firms, including business process outsourcing firms, realise through their supplier networks. Such value realisation is often possible through a dynamic exchange of complementary organisational capabilities between a firm and its network partners. However, little is known about how outsourcing firms develop these capabilities and thus realise value. This paper addresses an unexplored theoretical gap of developing market-based organisational learning capabilities in business process outsourcing firms. Using a capabilities lens, this study assesses the impact of quality management capabilities in developing market-based organisational learning capability. Findings from a case study of four business process outsourcing firms in India suggest that effective knowledge transfer, diffusion and the development of market-based organisational learning capabilities are contingent upon the strength of a firm's quality management capabilities. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Of an estimated global expenditure of US$ 1.5 trillion on technology and related services, software, information technology and business process outsourcing services account for US$ 1.0 trillion (NASSCOM, 2010). Although there was a 3% decline in the total expenditure following the global financial crisis in 2008, industry estimates suggest a positive growth of between 3–4% in the 2010 to 2012 period (NASSCOM, 2010), a significant percentage of which is likely to come from developed countries. Although the USA and Western Europe account for nearly 80% of all IT spend, a significant proportion of IT and BPO services is being outsourced to offshore locations in developing Asian countries. India currently accounts for 51% of the global offshore market share, thought to be worth of about US$94 billion (NASSCOM, 2010), which is expected to grow at a rate of 7–9% in the 2010–12 period. Given the increasing incidence of outsourcing and the need to understand its nature and extent, management and business-to-business marketing journals have suggested frameworks and reported empirical studies on outsourcing (see for example Special Issues on outsourcing in the Journal of Management Studies, 2010 and Industrial Marketing Management, 2009). Recent literature on business-to-business marketing acknowledges the value firms realise through their network of suppliers in an outsourcing relationship (Ahearne & Kothandaraman, 2009). Such value realisation is made possible through a dynamic exchange of complementary organisational capabilities between a firm and its network partners (Banerjee, 2004). However, little research has been undertaken in business-to-business outsourcing firms to examine the capabilities that are relevant in such environments. Given that there are significant differences in firm-level performance (Ethiraj, Kale, Krishnan, & Singh, 2005) there remains a paucity of empirical studies and frameworks that help understand the complexity of services and the capabilities these firms develop for sustained high performance. Research is needed in areas such as organisational capabilities and the coordination of supplier–vendor relationships in global supply chains. For effective coordination in global supply chains and to ensure efficient and timely service delivery, large Indian outsourcing firms have invested in capabilities that are becoming the benchmarks in the outsourcing industry. These include: project management and client-specific capabilities, and technological and quality management capabilities for improved market signalling and firm performance (Arora and Asundi, 2000 and Ethiraj et al., 2005). The extant literature from strategic marketing suggests that a firm's market-based organisational learning (MBOL) capability is a critical market-sensing capability (Morgan, 2004 and Sinkula et al., 1997). However, little is known about how this capability is developed, especially in the context of the outsourcing sector. The purpose of this paper is to understand how MBOL capability is developed and the role a firm's quality management capabilities (QMC) play in outsourcing environments. Although earlier research has looked at the relationship between learning orientation (LO) and market orientation (MO) (Sinkula et al., 1997) and its impact on performance, the literature on LO and MO presents competing views – theoretically and empirically – thus, suggesting the need to unbundle the relationship between LO and MO and its antecedents. Similarly, inconsistent findings exist in the relationship between market orientation (MO) and a firm's quality management capabilities (QMC) (Demirbag et al., 2006, Day, 1994, Lai, 2002, Kordupleski et al., 1993, Sittimalakorn and Hart, 2004 and Zelbst et al., 2010) and between a firm's learning orientation (LO) and organisational learning capability (OLC) (Jerez-Gomez et al., 2004, Sinkula et al., 1997 and Yeung et al., 1999) and quality management (Gutierrez et al., 2009, Sohal and Morrison, 1995 and Wiklund and Sandvik Wiklund, 2002). The above studies have mostly been undertaken in manufacturing environments of developed countries. Except for Wang and Wei (2005), which focuses on Taiwanese software firms, no research has considered the intersection of the three threads in the literature on a firm's market and learning orientations and its quality management capabilities in an outsourcing environment. Owing to India's spectacular growth, and its increasing market share of the global outsourcing sector, and the high degree of proliferation of quality management practices in the Indian BPO sector (NASSCOM, 2006), we consider India to be a fertile research setting to explore the research problem identified above. Using a case study research methodology, our study contributes to the literature in the following manner. Firstly, we extend Sinkula et al.'s (1997) theoretical framework by incorporating the effects of a firm's QMC in the development of MBOL capabilities, and its subsequent impact on sustained competitive advantage. Secondly, we test the application of the MBOL framework in the context of outsourcing firms. Finally, this study explores whether any theoretical generalisations from Sinkula et al.'s framework are applicable to the outsourcing industry in a developing country context. In addition to exploring the above gaps, our study also addresses the call for undertaking research in contexts specific to industries and firms (Collis, 1994 and Oliver, 1997) by focusing on India's BPO firms. Such research will be of direct relevance to practitioners in this industry group. In view of these above gaps, this study seeks to answer: (1) does an organisation's quality management capabilities help in enhancing or deterring its MBOL? If so, how?; And (2) how do quality and MBOL capabilities in BPO firms affect firm performance and sustained competitive advantage (SCA)? The rest of the paper is organised as follows. First, we provide a brief overview of India's business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Second, the literature review leads to the development of the study's conceptual framework and the research questions. Third, we present an overview of the methodology employed and a brief description of the research setting. We then present the analysis and findings. Finally, we conclude with implications for practice and directions for future research.

Although this study confirmed the earlier known relationships between LO and MO, QMC and LO, and performance, understanding the relationship between LO, MO and QMC, in the context of outsourcing firms is an added contribution of this study. This study's distinctive contribution lies in analysing a critical and an unexplored link between a firm's QMC and its MBOL capability and, subsequently, performance and realisation of SCA. Future research can be directed at testing the above relationships. This research is critical for practitioners from different disciplines as it suggests, consistent with the original thesis of Relationship Marketing (Gronroos, 1994), the need for managers to adopt an inclusive and integrated approach to their marketing, people development and operations management approaches. It is interesting to note that even in a highly dynamic and a high growth B2B market, the need to maintain good relationships is paramount for success. Moreover, the study points to some key marketing capabilities, which high-tech service organisations can benefit from. By employing quality management tools, HR and marketing practitioners can engage in evidence-based practice. Practitioners should pay special attention to structuring their quality management processes and a full scale development of QMC to avoid issues of poor inter-functional coordination and team working. Finally, thinking of QMC as a capability that introduces value-rationality for balancing analytical and instrumental rationality is highly relevant to extending research into the fields of TQM and marketing. Such an approach will enable marketing practitioners and academics to demonstrate which capabilities matter and why.