Embedded knowledge and offshore software development Brian Nicholson a, Ã , Sundeep Sahay b a School of Accounting and Finance, University of Manchester, Mezzanine Floor, Crawford House, Booth Street East, Manchester M13 9PL, UK b Institute of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Abstract Offshore software development scenarios may include groups with domain specific knowledge who collaborate internationally across multiple local contexts. A key challenge in the understanding and also practice of such distributed work is concerned with the issue of knowledge, and how it can be effectively managed. In this paper, we develop a conceptual scheme based on theories associated with embedded knowledge. Drawing on evidence from a longitudinal case study of a British software company with an offshore subsidiary in India, we discuss problems associated with the embeddedness of knowledge in two geographically separated units of a firm. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Knowledge management; Case study; Software development 1. Introduction Software development has been described as a complex problem solving process simultaneously involving a number of individuals, teams, and organisations with competing goals, interests, and responsibilities (Curtis, Kransner, & Iscoe, 1988). Designers and developers are involved in designing and writing the program, project managers are responsible for the successful completion of the project, and the end- users provide the test of whether the software is acceptable to them or not. These * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-161-275-4024; fax: +44-161-275-4023. E-mail address: brian.nicholson@man.ac.uk (B. Nicholson), sundeep@ifi.uio.no (S. Sahay). 1471-7727/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2004.05.001 www.elsevier.com/locate/infoandorg INFORMATION AND ORGANIZATION Information and Organization 14 (2004) 329–365