This page is part of the CRIC web archive

Knowledge Intensive Services and Changing Organisational Forms

26-27 November 2003

ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC) and
Institute of Innovation Research (IoIR),
10th Floor Harold Hankins Building,
Booth Street West,
Precinct Centre,
Manchester.

Organisers: Marcela Miozzo, Damian Grimshaw and Rod Coombs

Brief Background
IT outsourcing and management consultancy services are two areas that have shown remarkable growth in recent years. Moreover, these services are provided in increasingly complex inter-organisational arrangements, with, for example, the emergence of 'mega-contracts' for IT services and 'business process outsourcing' in the area of consulting. This workshop has two aims. First, it seeks to explore the influence of a country's institutional arrangements on the evolution of knowledge intensive services - namely, the IT (software and computer services) sector and the management consulting services sector. Secondly, it aims to analyse the implications for organizational performance and for questions regarding the boundaries, control and co-ordination of the modern enterprise. For example, suppliers of IT and consulting services are often locked in to the business strategy of their client firms, suggesting that the nature of the inter-organisational relationship (contractual and interpersonal) plays a key role in shaping organizational performance. Moreover, the extent to which performance is evenly distributed among clients and suppliers may vary, reflecting market position (power), the strength of trusting relations (risk) and the wider institutional environment.

Top

CRIC is now proud to be part of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR)
Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC), The University of Manchester,
Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West, Manchester M13 9QH, England
Phone +44 (0)161 275 7365 Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 7361
Site maintained by: Ishty Hussain