Building a Reputation as a Business Partner in Information Technology Outsourcing
Authors: Kotlarsky, Julia; Rivard, Suzanne; Oshri, Ilan
Journal: MIS Quarterly (2023)
<jats:p>One noticeable trend in the maturing information technology (IT) outsourcing industry is the growing interest from client firms seeking to benefit from supplier-led innovations. Yet IT outsourcing suppliers still find it challenging to shift their reputation from the competent provision of a low-end service to a high-value innovative line of services, thus becoming known as business partners. We address this issue by examining the reputation formation efforts of an IT supplier experiencing a reputation deficit in terms of quality (its ability as a business partner) and intent (its intention to adopt trustworthy behavior). We develop a model based on a case study of a large IT supplier engaged in reputation formation with its outsourcing clients. We portray reputation formation as a process wherein an IT supplier alternately emits signals of quality and intent from a repertoire of signals. Our process model distinguishes between signaling at the market level, which relies on rhetorical mediums to broadcast a message promoting the supplier’s ability as a business partner, and signaling at the client level, which relies on substantive mediums such as demonstrations of the sup…