Cultural Intelligence and Project Management Interplay in IT Offshore Outsourcing Projects

Prior research on the management of IT offshore outsourcing projects has focused on crosscultural issues or on project and relationship management issues. However, there is still a lack of understanding concerning effective management practices that help to overcome the challenges of client-vendor cultural distance in IT offshoring relationships. Therefore, the goal of this research is to increase our understanding of how the risks that result from this cultural distance in IT offshoring can be mitigated and which management practices must be employed. Thereby, we take both cross-cultural and project management issues into account and focus on the specific interplay between both elements. As research on this topic is scarce, we chose a theory-building and exploratory research design. We conducted an in-depth analysis of a single case from the financial services industry in Germany. Our findings suggest that cultural intelligence and IT project management techniques interact with each other in a reinforcing virtuous circle.