Holistic Archetypes of IT Outsourcing Strategy: A Contingency Fit and Configurational Approach1
Authors: Lee, Jae-Nam; Park, YoungKi; Straub, Detmar W.; Koo, Yunmo
Journal: MIS Quarterly (2019)
<jats:p>The goal of this paper is to determine holistic archetypes of information technology (IT) outsourcing strategy. It does this through an overarching theoretical framework that integrates three dominant theories of inter-organizational relations in the IT outsourcing literature, namely transaction cost economics, resource dependency, and social exchange theories. A contingency fit theoretical framing is married to a configurational approach to explicate the intricate relationships that spring up between a focal firm and its outsourcing vendors when they are working toward specific strategic objectives under varying contingencies. In line with this theoretical objective, we used qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), a set-theoretic configuration method that can handle the interdependent complexity among multiple elements of IT outsourcing. The technique was applied to a sample of 235 companies that have outsourced some or all of their IT functions. Findings at the project level of analysis empirically reveal two sets of configurations of strategic IT outsourcing elements, one set of configurations resulting in high economic benefit and the other set leading to high strategi…