Evaluation of IT Framework for Complementing Organizational Learning and Collaboration in Commercial Vehicle Greenfield Manufacturing 2013-01-2438

Foreign investments help in productive capacity building for both the parent organization in the home country, and in the host country. Preferably, investment promotion is encouraged as it creates biggest impact on creating backward and forward linkages besides generating direct and indirect employment. Commercial vehicle is one such industry. In this knowledge world, organizations can excel or sustain their excellence, only if there is a continuous learning at all levels. To a great extent, competitive advantage of a transnational organization lies in its ability to identify and transfer best practices, core competencies. Knowledge sharing happens in a natural way between its geographically dispersed and diverse units. Technology paves way in creating and leveraging knowledge at an exponential rate, besides reducing time, effort and cost while achieving business goals. Adoption of technology becomes highly pertinent if the parent company has strategies to enter into different markets.

In most cases, the best practices and competencies are transferred from the parent company. But a Greenfield project offers fertile ground either for adoption of the parent company's systems or for evaluating and establishing systems on its own. The paper will delve on the importance of organizational learning and collaboration in this scenario, and the focus areas. Advantages and disadvantages of Greenfield projects adopting the Information Technology (IT) framework or a business blueprint from the parent organization, and projects evaluating and establishing systems on its own will be discussed in detail. Methods and steps for adoption or evaluation of the IT framework will also be discussed. This comparison and detailing of the steps will be based on organization specific requirements and key characteristics of the IT framework.