Learning over the IT Life Cycle – Advantages of Integrated Service Creation and Service Management

In this chapter we draw parallels between IT application development and management and the construction industry and internationalizing firms therein: while the construction lifecycle with its phases design, build, operate resembles that of IT, the internationalization of firms with a physical product – buildings – can be related to the virtualization of a digital industry – the recent trend to cloud computing. We are interested in different forms of learning between stages of multi-stage projects. In particular, we try to understand how to conceptually distinguish learning from mere trouble shooting. We build on research in the construction industry and lessons from a case study with a firm that integrates design, build and operation phase and internationalizes its operation through offshoring part of its value chain.