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Information Systems Frontiers

Erschienen in:

01.11.2010

Combining transaction cost and resource-based insights to explain IT implementation outsourcing

verfasst von: Emilio Alvarez-Suescun

Erschienen in: Information Systems Frontiers | Ausgabe 5/2010

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Abstract

This empirical work aims to shed some light on the governance choice for information technology (IT) outsourcing decisions. By combining transaction cost and resource-based arguments, we explain the role that some economic and strategic factors as well as their relationships may play. Hypotheses are tested for the implementation of an HR software application with primary data collected from large Spanish firms. Findings seem to provide more support for resource-based arguments than for transaction-cost propositions. Thus, our results suggest that cumulative knowledge from either coordination and interaction between internal units or experience in IT outsourcing is not a significant factor unless the organization is able to develop a strategic capability. Unlike for technology specificity, no evidence was found for the significance of behavioral uncertainty and strategic contribution.

Vorheriger Artikel Personalisation in web computing and informatics: Theories, techniques, applications, and future research

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Resource-based proponents refer to assets which are specific to a particular firm rather than to a particular transaction as transaction cost advocators do.

Several one-way analyses of variance were undertaken to determine whether response and non-response biases exist. First, response bias was assessed by the use of publicly available data that permitted the comparison of the respondents and the total sample —including respondents and non-respondents— with respect to firm size. Second, we observed no significant differences with respect to the independent variables of our models and other organizational characteristics —size and industry— between firms that responded through internet and those that used the postal mail, and between firms that had implemented all modules of the HR information system at once and those that had done it gradually. Finally, a test for non-response bias was performed (Armstrong and Overton 1977). This test was conducted by combining the first and last quartile of respondents into an early and late category, no significant differences across the above-mentioned variables were detected either.

Unlike other authors that group values of the dependent variable (e.g., Ang and Cummings 1997), we tested that the new grouping was arbitrary and irrelevant (Cramer and Ridder 1991). As the result of the Cramer and Ridder’s test was not significant at the 0.05 level (\( {L_R} = 18.53 < {\chi_{0.95}} \)), the values ‘outsourcing’ and ‘joint’ could be pooled.

A descriptive analysis of the variable behavioral uncertainty shows that more than 60% of respondents gave a rating for this factor lower than 2 on a 7-point Likert scale.

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Titel: Combining transaction cost and resource-based insights to explain IT implementation outsourcing
verfasst von: Emilio Alvarez-Suescun
Publikationsdatum: 01.11.2010
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Information Systems Frontiers / Ausgabe 5/2010
Print ISSN: 1387-3326
Elektronische ISSN: 1572-9419
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-010-9237-1

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