Knowledge Connectivity in an Adverse Context: Global Value Chains and Pakistani Offshore Service Providers

Abstract

Abstract This paper contributes to theory building eforts around the concept of knowledge connectivity and its relevance in buyer-supplier relationships in global value chains. We use the Pakistani IT industry as our study context. Pakistan suffered a signifcant adverse perception bias following terror attacks in 2008-09. We based our illustration on the experiences of 12 Pakistani ofshore service providers (OSPs) who succeeded in ofsetting the negative implications of the country’s adverse political environment. The case frms link into two distinct value chain confgurations. In each configuration, we observe a distinct course of strategic action, which we term stepup and break-out, respectively. While these observations emerged from the Pakistani context, the implications of the resulting dynamic framework for theory and practice go beyond this particular adverse country setting.