Global leadership challenges regarding outsourcing innovation in the computing industry

This dissertation centers on the complexities of global leadership in the computing industry. In the past fifteen years the strategy of outsourcing labor-intensive activities has become commonplace in the personal computing arena, allowing the industry to prosper through years of significant cost pressure. Historically, the organizational delineations have been clear: design and innovation have been performed in the U.S., while manufacturing has been outsourced to low-cost partners in Asia. However, as cost pressures have mounted, resources have diminished, and communication technology improved, the established boundaries of innovation and manufacturing ownership have changed. As innovation has been outsourced, it has joined manufacturing organizations consisting of diverse cultures, geographies, and partnerships. The use of third-party resources to manage design and innovation has resulted in a new system of knowledge management.;As a system, the exchange of codified knowledge within and between organizations strengthened the embedded relationships between the parties. As the industry's organizational and financial boundaries have attenuated, a new type of leadership challenge has emerged, creating the research question: Are there leadership practices or styles that effectively guide organizations that rely on the outsourcing of innovation and manufacturing to Taiwan and China in the computing industry? A qualitative case study method was used to investigate the differing leadership practices applied within a dialectic global production network in which a system of innovation and manufacturing has emerged. The analysis considers a full range of leadership behaviors used when facing cultural challenges regarding intellectual property rights, environmental design decisions, and enormous cost pressures. This mixed model leadership paradigm is analyzed here through the lens of the personal computing business, an industry in which technological knowledge is exchanged between multicultural organizations, thereby creating a network of innovation outsourcing.