From boundary spanning to creolization: A study of Chinese software and services outsourcing vendors

• Alternative theorization of software and services suppliers’ cross-cultural practices.
• The concept of creolization proposed and developed to understand this phenomenon.
• Creolization extends beyond extant concepts such as boundary spanning.
• Identity multiplicity, network expansion and cultural hybridity also integrated.
• Chinese IT service suppliers employ a creolized perspective in cross cultural relationships.

In achieving success in global sourcing arrangements, the role of a cultural liaison, boundary spanner or transnational intermediary is frequently highlighted as being critical. This paper critiques, builds upon and synthesizes relevant streams of ideas in relation to boundary-spanning and cross-cultural management across a number of disciplines, and constructs a multi-layered creolization framework, encompassing processes at the individual, intra- and inter-organizational and inter-national levels which, we argue, are entangled and interrelated. Viewed as a vital and innovative phenomenon, creolization embodies the interactive, contentious and creative processes of network expansion, mutual sensemaking, cultural hybridity and identity multiplicity. Qualitative empirical data from the software and services outsourcing industry in Northwest China is used to demonstrate the complexity of cross-cultural practices in offshore collaborations and illustrate creolization processes. Potentials for theoretical development are outlined and implications for cross-cultural practices are discussed.