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A multi-
A multi-disciplinary profile of disciplinary
IS/IT outsourcing research profile
Mohamed Alsudairi
King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and 215
Yogesh K. Dwivedi
School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Swansea, UK Received April 2009
Revised June 2009
Accepted September 2009
Abstract
Purpose In recent years a large number of studies have appeared on information systems
(IS)/information technology (IT) outsourcing related issues but scattered in a number of distantly
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related publishing outlets which may hamper the use of such published resources and repetition of
research conducted by various researchers. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic
survey of the literature pertaining to research on IS/IT outsourcing.
Design/methodology/approach The research aim was accomplished by extracting information
on a number of relevant variables by conducting a review of 315 articles on IS/IT outsourcing
published between 1992 and 2008.
Findings The analysis is presented by listing and illustrating subject category, journals, year of
publications and country, frequently published authors, productive institutions, the trend of
collaborative nature (co-author analysis) of research, the impact/influence of published research;
topics/research issues and utilised methods, and the challenges and limitations of existing research.
Practical implications Results of this research may have implications for both private and public
sector organizations interested in outsourcing IS/IT services and applications, and various
stakeholders of academic publishing (namely, researchers, journal editors, reviewers and universities)
research on IS/IT outsourcing.
Originality/value The primary value of this paper lies in extending the understanding of
evolution and patterns of outsourcing research.
Keywords Information systems, Communication technologies, Outsourcing, Research
Paper type General review
1. Introduction
Although rooted during 1960s and 1970s, first ripe fruit of outsourcing in the form of a
mega project deal between Eastman Kodak Company as a client (Gonzalez et al., 2006)
and four large vendors as providers was realised during 1980s. Since then (within last 20
years) outsourcing has evolved from a differentiation strategy for gaining competitive
advantage to more as a basic strategy of IS/IT management (Gonzalez et al., 2006) in
majority of large organisations in both public (such as hospitals and local governments)
and private (such as manufacturing organisations) sectors. The rapid technological
advancement, evolution of internet, wide availability and adoption of broadband
(Dwivedi and Irani, 2009; Irani et al., 2009) enabling outsourcing strategy to be
implemented even by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It has been modified in Journal of Enterprise Information
number of ways which has resulted in a number of variants of the term outsourcing. Management
Vol. 23 No. 2, 2010
Some of the examples includes selective sourcing (Jayatilaka et al., 2003), backsourcing pp. 215-258
(Veltri et al., 2008), international outsourcing (Smith et al., 1996), foreign outsourcing (Yan, q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1741-0398
2006), smartsourcing (Verhoef, 2005), goalsourcing (Verhoef, 2005), eastsourcing (Verhoef, DOI 10.1108/17410391021019787
JEIM 2005), tasksourcing (Verhoef, 2005), opensourcing (Agerfalk and Fitzgerald, 2008) etc.).
23,2 Utilisation of search terms clearly indicates a high degree of evolution and differentiation
in outsourcing practice.
Considering the predominance of outsourcing strategy in practice, this area has
emerged as a hot spot for researchers engaged in management, international business,
operations research, and information systems (IS) area. Followings are some of the
216 recent examples that have tried to examine just few of issues related with outsourcing of
IS/IT. Two recent studies attempted to examine outsourcing in relation to logistics
(Kiisler, 2008; Zelenika et al., 2008). Kiisler (2008) surveyed various issues including
outsourcing and ICT systems use in logistics in Estonian business companies. Findings
of this study provide indications that the outsourcing of IT systems in logistics followed
by inventory management, warehousing and product customization is expected to
increase more substantially by 2010 (Kiisler, 2008). Zelenika et al. (2008) attempted to
examine outsourcing logistics in Slovenian Petrol Stations. Findings of this study
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The above described limitations of both existing studies (Dibbern et al., 2004;
Gonzalez et al., 2006) on reviewing outsourcing research and publications of large
number of articles on IS/IT outsourcing within last three years clearly indicates a gap
that need to be filled by undertaking a further analysis and synthesis of existing
research. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to conduct a systematic survey of the
literature from various disciplines pertaining to research on IS/IT outsourcing in order
to determine current status and trends of existing research in this area. Following
research objectives were proposed to achieve the stated aim:
.
analyse the distribution/trends of research on IS/IT outsourcing across subject
category, journals, year of publications and country;
.
determine the frequently published authors and productive institutions for
conducting research on IS/IT outsourcing;
.
explores the trend of collaborative nature (co-author analysis) of research on
IS/IT outsourcing;
.
determine the impact/influence of published research on IS/IT outsourcing by
utilising citation analysis;
.
explores the trend of topics/research issues and utilised methods by using
keyword analysis approach;
.
reflect on suitability of existing classification scheme and propose a modified
scheme; and finally
.
explore the challenges and limitations of existing research and to provide future
research directions.
2. Research methodology
Analysis of accumulated knowledge on a particular topic (such as IS/IT outsourcing)
require systematic identification and classification of relevant published literature.
Depending upon degree of analysis required such analysis can be conducted utilising a
number of methods including Literature review, Library research, Bibliometric
analysis, Historical analysis, and Meta-analysis (Avison et al., 2008; Dwivedi and
Kuljis, 2008; 2008b, 2009; Dwivedi and Mustafi, 2010; Palvia and Pinjani, 2007;
Williams et al., 2009). For example, previous studies employed literature review
approach for suggesting new performance measures and metrics in supply chain
management (Gunasekaran and Bulent, 2007), for analysing the empirical research on
supply chain management (Ho et al., 2002), for analysis of the information integration
of the enterprise literature (Giachetti, 2004) and for developing framework on
build-to-order supply chain management (Gunasekaran and Ngai, 2005). Williams et al.
(2009) and Dwivedi et al. (2008a) successfully employed bibliometric analysis and
historical analysis/longitudinal literature review approaches for determining trends on
IT/IS adoption and diffusion research. Also, meta-analysis approach was adapted to
profile theoretical and methodological underpinnings of articles published in a number
of leading IS journals namely, European Journal of Information Systems (Dwivedi and
Kuljis, 2008), Information Systems Frontiers (Dwivedi et al., 2009), Information
Systems Journal (Avison et al., 2008), Information & Management (Palvia and Pinjani,
2007), Journal of Electronic Commerce Research (Dwivedi et al., 2008b).
In line with the above discussion and considering the focus of this research
meta-analysis deemed as an appropriate research approach for determining trends and
issues of IS/IT outsourcing research. Meta-analysis approach has been employed in
various contexts such as for determining:
.
the RFID research trends (Chao et al., 2007; Ngai et al., 2008);
.
the trends on outsourcing research (Gonzalez et al., 2006); and
.
trends on IT/IS adoption and diffusion research (Dwivedi et al., 2008a; Williams
et al., 2009).
approach to data collection was recently employed successfully for similar purpose
(Chao et al., 2007; Ngai et al., 2008; Dwivedi et al., 2008a; Williams et al., 2009).
Moreover, restricting the search activities to a single database overrule many of the
potential problems of duplication inherent in the use of multiple data sources. The
search-tool used within this research exercise was the General Search from the Web
of Sciencew. The main reason for employing a General Search approach was simply
that its easy to use characteristics facilitate the repetition of searches without any
confusion, henceforth is straightforward to obtain consistent results in repetitive
searches provided the same search criteria are applied (Dwivedi et al., 2008a, Williams
et al., 2009).
In order to identify publications specific to the IS/IT outsourcing area, two sets of
search-terms were utilised within this study: First set included single search term
Outsourcing and second set included a number of search terms Information
technology or Information technologies or Information system or
Information systems or ICT or Information and communication technology or
Information and communication technologies or Information & communication
technology or Information & communication technologies. The search was
restricted to occurrences of any of these keywords appearing in the article topic in
order to avoid missing publications where any of these keywords might have not been
used in title but mentioned in the keywords list and abstract. It was believed that if any
combination of key terms from both sets appeared in the article keyword list and
abstract, it suggested that the focus of the article is certainly on some aspect of IS/IT
outsourcing. A combination of these two sets of keywords generated 532 records or
search outputs which included articles (C 322), proceedings paper (C 180), review
(C 14), editorial (C 8), book review (C 5), correction (C 1), news item (C 1)
and note (C 1). Following method adapted by a previous study on outsourcing
literature analysis (Gonzalez et al., 2006) we also excluded proceedings paper, editorial,
book review, correction, news item and note. This resulted in the extraction of 336
records providing details on publications relating to outsourcing. All 336 items were
once again examined manually to crosscheck and confirm the relevance of the search
results. This process led us to identify 21 articles that were found less relevant as their
focus was not inline with topic of this research. Excluding these 21 articles resulted in
final sample of 315 articles which was utilised in analysis presented in this paper.
JEIM 2.2 Data analysis
23,2 A number of analyses were conducted on the search output in following two phases.
First phase was involved generating count and percentage data for various variables
(namely, subject category, journal in which an article appeared, year of publication,
author, authors institution, the country in which the research was conducted, and the
number of times each study cited by other studies) utilised to categorise the search
220 output employing various analysis tools available in the Web of Science. Approach for
analysing these variables was adapted from previous such studies (Dwivedi et al.,
2008a; Williams et al., 2009)
Second phase was involved a further detailed manual analysis of the search output
in order to extract various items of information which could not be obtained directly
from the Web of Science database. Analysis conducted in phase 2 was further divided
in following two phases. First stage of this phase included a manual collection and
analysis of keywords utilised/listed by 315 publications. This was conducted in order
to explore most frequently examined topics related with IS/IT outsourcing. In order to
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analyse and organise collated keywords (related with IS/IT outsourcing literature)
meaningfully, a classification scheme by Barki et al. (1993) was adapted. Barki et al.
(1993) study has grouped IS research in nine major areas consisting Reference
discipline, External environment, Information technology, Organisational
environment, IS management, IS development and operations, IS usage,
Information systems types, and IS education and research (Barki et al., 1993). The
reason for adapting this scheme is as far as we are aware no other such a
comprehensive keyword classification scheme exists and many recent studies on IS/IT
literature analysis (Avison et al., 2008; Dwivedi and Kuljis, 2008; Dwivedi et al., 2008b)
has successfully adapted this scheme to classify existing literature. However,
according to our need by considering types of IS/IT outsourcing research published we
adapted this scheme by merging three categories namely, IS/IT outsourcing
technology, IS/IT outsourcing development and operations, and IS/IT outsourcing
application into single category named Technology, systems, applications and
development. Similarly very few work appeared on usage so we merged this category
with Management of IS/IT outsourcing category. We eliminated category IS education
and research as we found it inappropriate in case of one aspect of IS management
(outsourcing) as oppose to a academic discipline such as IS. Finally, we divided
Reference discipline category into two categories Theories and models, and
Research methods and Analysis techniques. Such adjustments in Barki et al.s (1993)
scheme was strongly justified and successfully utilised by a recent study (Dwivedi
et al., 2008b) attempted to classify sub-domain/specific topics (such as e-commerce) of
IS. Final categories for classifying keywords appeared in publications on IS/IT
outsourcing includes:
.
Theories, Models, Theoretical constructs.
.
Research methods, Analysis techniques.
.
External (social, economical, legal and political) environment.
.
Organizational (size, structure, function, processes) environment.
.
Management (project management, team, evaluation, adoption etc.) of IS/IT
outsourcing.
.
Technology, Systems, Applications and Development.
Second stage of phase 2 was involved a further analysis of topics and research method. A multi-
In order to do so abstracts of each article were individually scrutinised for obtaining disciplinary
and recording information such as the research methodologies and research topics and
scope. Data obtained from this analysis relating to the variables under examination profile
were first recoded in SPSS v.14, and then count and percentage values generated. For
the methodological variable we adopted categories (see Table I) from the previous such
studies (Avison et al., 2008; Dwivedi and Kuljis, 2008; Gonzalez et al., 2006). For 221
categorising the articles in terms of research topics we followed a list of categories
utilised by a previous study (Gonzalez et al., 2006). However, it is important to note that
for this stage of the analysis, only 126 articles (published in year 2006, 2007, 2008 and
2009) of the original 315 search outputs could be considered. The reason for excluding
a proportion of search outputs (published before year 2006) was availability of such
comparative data from a previous study (Gonzalez et al., 2006) that have already
categorised articles published in year 2005 or before.
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3. Research findings
3.1. Outsourcing studies according to subject category
Findings suggest that a total of 38 Web of Science Subject Categories have published
315 research articles on outsourcing related issues, the largest number of articles (136)
appearing within the Management category. This is followed by the Computer
science, information systems category (128), the Information science & library
science category (101), and then the Operations research & management category
with 39 publications on this topic. Table II listed all 38 categories, which includes
categories such as Engineering-industrial, Business, Computer science,
Interdisciplinary applications, Computer science, theory & methods, Computer
science, software engineering, and Telecommunications, these categories have
published ten or more publications. Other categories that have published three or more
articles include Engineering, manufacturing, Engineering, electrical and electronic,
Computer science, artificial intelligence, Economics, Engineering,
multidisciplinary, Public administration, Computer science, hardware &
architecture, Planning & development, Communication, Engineering, civil,
and Health policy & services. Only two articles associated with each of seven
categories (such as environmental studies, ergonomics, geography, and
Transportation). A total of ten categories published the lowest number of articles
(C 1) on IS/IT outsourcing and related issues. Examples of these categories includes
Engineering, multidisciplinary 5
Public administration 5
Computer science, hardware and architecture 4
Planning and development 4
Communication 3
Engineering, civil 3
Health policy and services 3
Construction and building technology 2
Environmental studies 2
Ergonomics 2
Geography 2
Social sciences, mathematical methods 2
Transportation 2
Transportation science and technology 2
Business, finance 1
Energy and fuels 1
Engineering, chemical 1
Food science and technology 1
History of social sciences 1
Industrial relations and labor 1
Table II. Political science 1
Outsourcing studies Social issues 1
according to subject Social sciences, interdisciplinary 1
category Water resources 1
Business, finance, Energy & fuels, Food science & technology, Political science,
Social issues and Water resources.
It is clear from both above description and data presented in Table II that most
active areas that publishes research on IS/IT outsourcing and related issues
management, computer science, information systems, operations research,
management science and engineering. But substantial work is also published in
disciplines/subject that is distantly related with IT/IS area. For example, Public
administration is not directly related with IS/IT outsourcing but there are three
publications appeared within this categories. The possible reason is that such
publications may have dealt with IS/IT outsourcing within public sector (Aulich and
Hein, 2005; Bensghir and Tekneci, 2008; Janssen and Joha, 2006). Similarly outsourcing A multi-
of IS/IT in water and wastewater industry (Dermody et al., 2006) appeared in the disciplinary
Water resources category and in health sector (Hopps, 2003; Menachemi et al., 2007;
Thouin et al., 2008) appeared in Health policy & services category. These examples profile
indicate that the studies on IS/IT outsourcing are diverse in nature and context. This
has implications for researchers engaged in identifying studies on IS/IT outsourcing
should not restrict their search to journals in mainstream areas (such as information 223
systems, management, business and operations research) as they may missed out
important developments in the area published elsewhere.
appeared. Table III illustrates that the largest number of articles (23) on IS/IT
outsourcing appeared in the Journal of Information Technology. This is followed by the
Information & Management (18), Industrial Management & Data Systems (16),
number of articles appearing post 2001 illustrates increasing levels of interest and
research activity in the subject area.
1. 2009 1 0.32
2. 2008 48 15.24
3. 2007 39 12.38
4. 2006 38 12.06
5. 2005 31 9.84
6. 2004 26 8.25
7. 2003 18 5.71
8. 2002 16 5.08
9. 2001 9 2.86
10. 2000 12 3.81
11. 1999 9 2.86
12. 1998 10 3.17
13. 1997 14 4.44
14. 1996 12 3.81
15. 1995 17 5.40 Table IV.
16. 1994 5 1.59 Outsourcing studies
17. 1993 7 2.22 published between 1992
18. 1992 3 0.95 and 2009
JEIM
Country Count % of 315
23,2
1. USA 165 52.38
2. UK 46 14.60
3. South Korea 18 5.71
4. Australia 16 5.08
226 5. Canada 15 4.76
6. Peoples Republic of China 13 4.13
7. Netherlands 11 3.49
8. Spain 11 3.49
9. Singapore 10 3.17
10. Germany 7 2.22
11. Finland 6 1.90
12. Taiwan 6 1.90
13. Israel 5 1.59
14. France 4 1.27
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outsourcing activities and status this is perhaps a surprising result and indicates that
there is opportunity for additional research based in such countries to take place in
order to further expand the existing knowledge base. Similar trends also observed in
previous publications on profiling of adoption and diffusion research (Williams et al.,
2009).
universities appeared in our top 25 list (University of Alicante, Spain and Erasmus
University, The Netherlands). Extending the list to include the 45 universities
contributing three articles each includes just one more European university (adding
Delft University of Technology from The Netherlands), two more institutions from the
UK (adding Cranfield University and University of Loughborough), and introduces
just one institution from Middle East countries such as Tel Aviv University from Israel
and only one institution from Australia (University of New South Wales) appeared in
the top 45 list. However, the extended list is again largely dominated by additional
USA-based institutions. Our results therefore provide a strong indication that IT/IS
outsourcing research resulting in journal publications takes place primarily in the
USA, UK and few Asian countries such Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea with
comparatively lower levels of activity (to date) taking place elsewhere. It is possible to
explain why both USA and UK leading such research. One possible explanation is to
see level of outsourcing activities undertaken by leading commercial organisations of
these two countries which often generated various issues including failures to obtain
benefits and security concerns. Such issues may have triggered motivation amongst
researchers from these two countries to understand such issues, and then formulate
and recommend appropriate strategies and approaches that may help to flourish IS/IT
outsourcing business. However, it is really difficult to explain why there are less efforts
from researchers from countries (such as India, Ireland, China, Philippine) that are
leading providers of IS/IT outsourcing services.
3.7 Co-author analysis A multi-
In terms of the number of co-authors who contributed to each article, 22.5 per cent disciplinary
(C 71) of the articles were written by one author (Single Authored). Findings of our
study shows slightly lower percent of publications by single authored than one profile
reported by Gonzalez et al. (2006). Though, this difference is consistent with trend
observed by the previous study, which noted that, the number of articles published by
two or more has increased (Gonzalez et al., 2006, p. 828). Findings from a further 229
analysis of multiple authored publications presented below. Such analysis was not
conducted by earlier study (Gonzalez et al., 2006). Articles produced by multiple
authors form the following categories: 39.4 per cent (C 124) articles which form the
largest category were co-authored by two authors, 29.2 per cent (C 92) articles by
three authors and 6.3 per cent (C 20) articles by four authors. 1.3 per cent (C 4)
articles by five authors.
It is interesting to note that there are few studies that have been jointly contributed
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by more than five authors. One article contributed jointly by six authors (Hideyuki
et al., 2006). Hideyuki et al. (2006) study attempted to describe the methods of applying
effective business continuity (BC) measures of information systems. This study also
provides specific details of BC measures and the work required for the proper operation
of backup systems. This study finally describes the managed service for
implementation of the BC measures (Hideyuki et al., 2006). Due to prevalence of
several types of threats to organisational information systems particularly outsourced
one, it is critical to advance our understanding towards business continuity in an event
of disaster. However, given the nature of such research it is not easy to undertake such
research which explains why there are large numbers of contributors included in this
paper. Findings also suggest that two articles were co-authored by seven authors (Apte
et al., 1997; Klok et al., 1995). Apte et al. (1997) study aimed to understand IS
outsourcing practices in three culturally and linguistically different countries (namely,
the USA, Japan and Finland) by undertaking a comparative study (Apte et al., 1997).
Such a diverse context requires contributors from each location which may have
resulted into seven authored paper. Second study authored jointly by seven authors
(Klok et al., 1995) attempted to present experiences of an Information Beheer (IB) Group
about the infrastructure, and the information systems to handle a large number of
telephone calls-a-day workload. The study also compared such experiences with the
literature on organizational learning, organizational change, in-sourcing, outsourcing,
and on the strategic intent of service organizations (Klok et al., 1995). So large number
of authors that contributed in this paper might be due to two possible reasons first
group that shared experiences within this paper may have many members
contributing to the paper and amount of work required to produce this paper seems
fairly large. Finally, only one article was co-authored by nine authors (Kumaran et al.,
2007) (see Table VIII). Kumaran et al. (2007) study published in a practitioner journal
(IBM Systems Journal ) attempted to apply a new approach of automating complex and
variable workflows to IT service delivery management (SDM). This study also
presents SDM architecture and discusses its implementation (Kumaran et al. 2007).
This clear that the content of this paper is very practice oriented and it would have
been the situation that a group or team of the practitioners jointly attempted to develop
such an alternative approach and therefore all deserve co-authorship of the paper
(Kumaran et al., 2007).
JEIM From above discussion it is easy to conclude that papers jointly authored by a
23,2 large number of authors presents findings from culturally diverse locations, very
in-depth in coverage of the topic and likely to be innovative in nature. Such
conclusion empirically supports the statement that the co-authorship is a step from
little science to big science (Gonzalez et al. (2006, p. 828) citing Nath and
Jackson, 1991).
230
3.8 Citation analysis
A citation analysis was conducted to determine the research impact of the most
influential authors and studies. Citation data (citation count and article frequency) from
Web of Science which was retrieved on February 10, 2009 for all 315 articles on IS/IT
outsourcing. Data obtained from Web of Science on total citation count per article
suggest that 25 articles were cited 30 or more times on average, and the 21 articles
received citations 20 or above but less than 30. Also, citation pattern below 20 counts is
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2 124 39.4
3 92 29.2
1 71 22.5
4 20 6.3
5 4 1.3
7 2 0.6
6 1 0.3
9 1 0.3
Table VIII. Total 315 100.0
Pattern of co-authorship
of IS/IT outsourcing Sources: Approach adapted from Avison et al. (2008); Dwivedi and Kuljis (2008); Dwivedi et al.
publications (2008a, 2009) and Gonzalez et al. (2006)
A multi-
SL Citations Frequency %
disciplinary
1. 0 89 28.3 profile
2. 1 32 10.2
3. 2 23 7.3
4. 3 23 7.3
5. 4 17 5.4 231
6. 5 10 3.2
7. 6 13 4.1
8. 7 5 1.6
9. 8 6 1.9
10. 9 9 2.9
11. 10 4 1.3
12. 11 11 3.5
13. 12 6 1.9
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14. 13 2 0.6
15. 14 3 1.0
16. 15 6 1.9
17. 16 2 0.6
18. 17 4 1.3
19. 18 2 0.6
20. 19 2 0.6
21. 20 5 1.6
22. 21 1 0.3
23. 22 1 0.3
24. 23 1 0.3
25. 24 2 0.6
26. 25 2 0.6
27. 26 3 1.0
28. 27 3 1.0
29. 28 1 0.3
30. 29 2 0.6
31. 30 2 0.6
32. 31 2 0.6
33. 33 3 1.0
34. 34 2 0.6
35. 35 3 1.0
36. 36 1 0.3
37. 38 1 0.3
38. 39 1 0.3
39. 45 1 0.3
40. 48 1 0.3
41. 49 2 0.6
42. 54 1 0.3
43. 57 1 0.3
44. 67 1 0.3
45. 77 1 0.3
46. 87 1 0.3
47. 99 1 0.3 Table IX.
Total 315 100.0 Web of Science citations
for article on IS/IT
Note: Accessed February 10, 2009 outsourcing
JEIM
SL Study Journal Article title Citation
23,2
1. Lacity and MISQ An empirical investigation of
Willcocks (1998) information technology sourcing
practices: lessons from experience 99
2. Feeny and SMR Core IS capabilities for exploiting
232 Willcocks (1998) information technology 87
3. Lacity and SMR The information systems outsourcing
Hirschheim bandwagon
(1993) 77
4. Lacity et al. HBR IT outsourcing maximise flexibility
(1995) and control 67
5. McFarlan and SMR How to manage an IT outsourcing
Nolan (1995) alliance 57
6. Smithson and EJIS Analysing information systems
Hirschheim evaluation: another look at an old
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(1998) problem 54
7. Saunders et al. CMR Achieving success in information
(1997) systems outsourcing 49
8. Nam et al. (1996) CACM A two-level investigation of
information systems outsourcing 49
9. Ang and Organisation Science Strategic response to institutional
Cummings influences on information systems
(1997) outsourcing 48
10. Cheon et al. Decision Sciences Decisions to outsource information-
(1995) systems functions testing a strategy-
theoretic discrepancy model 45
11. Slaughter and CACM Employment outsourcing in
Ang (1996) information systems 39
12. Apte and Mason Management Science Global disaggregation of information-
(1995) intensive services 38
13. Gupta (2000) IMDS Enterprise resource planning: the
emerging organizational value
systems 36
14. Lee (2001) I&M The impact of knowledge sharing,
organizational capability and
partnership quality on IS outsourcing
success 35
15. Lin and Shao I&M The relationship between user
(2000) participation and system success: a
simultaneous contingency approach 35
16. Choudhury and ISR Portfolios of control in outsourced
Sabherwal (2003) software development projects 35
17. Sambamurthy ISR Research commentary: the organizing
and Zmud (2000) logic for an enterprises it activities in
the digital era a prognosis of practice
and a call for research 34
18. Lin and Shaw International Journal of Reengineering the order fulfillment
(1994) Flexible Manufacturing process in supply chain networks
Table X. Systems 34
Twenty-five most cited 19. Schultz (1998) IEEE Software Managing a Y2K project Starting
articles on IS/IT now 33
outsourcing (continued)
SL Study Journal Article title Citation
A multi-
disciplinary
20. Cheon et al. JIT Theoretical perspectives on the profile
(1995) outsourcing of information systems 33
21. Gunasekaran Journal of Operations Build-to-order supply chain
and Ngai (2005) Management management: a literature review and
framework for development 33 233
22. Cross (1995) HBR IT outsourcing British-Petroleums
competitive approach 31
23. Kern and EJIS Exploring relationships in information
Willcocks (2002) technology outsourcing: the interaction
approach 31
24. Koh et al. (2004) ISR IT outsourcing success: a
psychological contract perspective 30
25. Lee et al. (2004) ISR IT outsourcing strategies:
universalistic, contingency, and
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configurational explanations of
success 30
Note: Accessed February 10, 2009
Sources: Approach adapted from Dwivedi and Kuljis (2008, 2009) Table X.
Keywords Frequency %
International outsourcing 1
Information technology offshoring 1
Foreign outsourcing 1
Smartsourcing 1
Support process outsourcing 1
Netsourcing 1
Services outsourcing 1
Goalsourcing 1
Scalesourcing 1
Management information systems management
outsourcing 1
Profitsourcing 1
Software development outsourcing 1
Eastsourcing 1
Information technology services outsourcing 1
Tasksourcing 1
Strategic outsourcing 1
Inshoring 1
Costsourcing 1
Global outsourcing 1
ICT strategic sourcing 1
E-commerce sourcing 1
Smart sourcing 1
Facility management 1
Mid-sourcing 1 Table XII.
Crowdsourcing 1 Theories, models,
Fastsourcing 1 theoretical constructs
Information technology sourcing 1 listed as keywords in
Opensourcing 1 IS/IT outsourcing
Total 219 publications
Game theory 1
Coordination theory 1
Mum effect 1
Modular systems theory 1
Psychological contracting theory 1
Discourses 1
Theory of reasoned action 1
Theory 1
Behavioral attitudinal theory 1
Uncertainty 1
Incomplete contract theory 1
Absorptive capacity 1
Diffusion of innovation 1
Transaction-cost economics 1
Knowledge-based theory 1
Table XIII. Practice theory 1
Search key term Resource dependency theory 1
outsourcing and its Economic models 1
variants as listed in IS/IT Transaction cost approach 1
outsourcing publications Total 64
within 315 publications but not listed as keywords. It is a common practice not to list
theories or models within the list of keywords. There the list presented in Table XIII is
indicative only not exhaustive in nature. In order to find all such theories and theoretical
constructs a further in-depth study should be conducted. However, considering the list
presented in Table XIII there is clear scope to do further research for understanding
various issues related with outsourcing by utilising relevant concepts and theories from
various disciplines. For example, an institutional theory can be utilised to understand
how various institutional forces shapes outsourcing decision.
Paradigm/research methods/analysis techniques. A number of keywords related
with research paradigm, research methods and analysis techniques were identified
from 315 publications. A total of 35 such terms appeared 57 times in keyword list of
analysed articles. Table XIV illustrate that 11 search terms appeared two or more times
and remaining 24 methodological terms appeared in keywords list of only one
publication. Case study is clearly a most frequently listed keyword with many variant
A multi-
Keywords Frequency
disciplinary
Case study 7 profile
Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) 6
Survey 4
Qualitative methods 3
Literature review 2 237
Grounded theory 2
Case-based reasoning 2
Ethnographic research 2
Content analysis 2
Case research approach 2
Cross-cultural study 2
Logistic regression 1
Experiment 1
Event study methodology 1
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Regression analysis 1
Multiple case study 1
Longitudinal analysis 1
Structural equation model 1
Reflective information system practitioner 1
Multi-method research 1
Hierarchical regression 1
Taxonomy 1
Literature review and framework 1
Mixed methods approach 1
Multivariate analysis 1
Critical perspectives on IT 1
Interpretative analysis 1
Partial least squares (PLS) 1
Questionnaire 1
Empirical research 1
Cross-cultural teams 1 Table XIV.
Validation 1 Research methods and
Interpretive research 1 analysis techniques listed
Conjoint study 1 as keywords in IS/IT
Total 57 outsourcing publications
terms such as case-based reasoning, case research approach and multiple case study.
Second most frequently utilised keyword is Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
followed by Survey and related term Questionnaire. The term Qualitative
methods listed in three studies and then seven terms (such as literature review,
grounded theory, ethnographic research, content analysis and cross cultural study)
listed twice in 315 publications. Interpretive research and interpretive analysis listed as
paradigm. A number of terms (such as logistic regression, structural equation model,
hierarchical regression, multivariate analysis, partial least squares (PLS), validation
and grounded theory) listed as analysis techniques. List in Table XIV includes wide
range of research methods from both interpretive (i.e. case study, content analysis,
ethnographic research) and positivist (survey and experiment) paradigms. Descriptive
methods such as literature review and framework also listed in two studies. Although
methods recorded from keywords list of 315 publications does not represent exhaustive
JEIM
Keywords Frequency
23,2
Services 3
Banking industry 3
Public sector 3
Economics 2
238 Developing country 2
Workforce 2
Government 2
Globalization 2
Public administration 2
Table XV. Culture 2
Socio, economic, political Health care 2
and legal topics listed as
keywords in IS/IT Note: 81 topics/keywords from this category appeared only once in 315 publications on IS/IT
outsourcing publications outsourcing
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Keywords Frequency
list (as many studies may not have listed utilised method in its keyword list), it
certainly provide a good idea of range of methods that have been utilised in IS/IT
outsourcing research.
External environment. The external environment category covers topics/issues
related with economic (e.g., public sector), legal (e.g., software protection), political (e.g.,
regulation), and social (e.g., computers and society) (Barki and Rivard, 1988). All such
keywords/terms placed within this category. A total of 93 keywords were relevant to
A multi-
Keywords Frequency
disciplinary
Project management 9
Contract 7
profile
Risk management 7
Information systems management 6
Communication 5
Control 5 239
Outsourcing Success 5
Downsizing 4
Application service provider 4
Capabilities 3
Buyer strategies 3
End-user computing 3
Flexibility 3
Management 3
Firm performance 3
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Transaction costs 3
Decision making 3
Systems integration 3
Business value 3
Business performance 3
Technology management 3
Distributed project management 2
Service quality 2
Information technology capabilities 2
User satisfaction 2
Customer satisfaction 2
Contractual governance 2
Outsourcing strategy 2
Human resource management 2
Skills 2
Enterprise resource planning 2
Information technology performance 2
Staffing 2
Information technology investment 2
Virtual team 2
Virtual work 2
Profitability 2
Productivity 2
Project task complexity 2
Information technology management 2
E-commerce projects 2
Outsourcing governance 2
CIO 2 Table XVII.
Return on investment 2 Outsourcing
management topics listed
Note: 218 topics/keywords from this category appeared only once in 315 publications on IS/IT as keywords in IS/IT
outsourcing outsourcing publications
this category, from which only 11 terms were utilised two or more than two times (see
Table XV). The data presented in the Table clearly suggest banking industry and
services utilised most frequently. This simply can be explained as banking and service
sectors were the leader in driving IS/IT outsourcing.
JEIM
Keywords Frequency
23,2
Systems development 5
Communication technologies 4
Application development 3
Decision support systems (DSS) 3
240 Internet 2
E-business 2
Technology 2
Table XVIII. Simulation 2
Technology, systems and Global software development 2
IS development topics Software development 2
listed as keywords in
IS/IT outsourcing Note: Eighty-seven topics/keywords from this category appeared only once in 315 publications on IS/
publications IT outsourcing
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A total of 81 terms utilised only once within this category which includes: Networked
markets, Printing industry, Information economics, Private sector, Industrial
organization, Retail industry, Governance, Student to worker comparison, Culture
gap, Governance forms, Global dispersedness, Logistics industry, Industrial policy,
Unemployment, Unfilled vacancies, Steel industry, Supply network, Demographics,
Global minerals industry, Merger & acquisition, Litigation risk, Gender differences,
Digital divide, Local knowledge, Marketing intangibles, Privatization, Risk capital,
Public policy, International competitiveness, Market discipline, ICT governance,
Myths of markets, Outsiders, Rule of law, Cultural differences, Welfare, Nearest
neighbor indexing, Economic growth, Economic cooperation, Hotels, National
economy, Privacy laws, Ministerial computer departments, Privacy protection,
Internal markets, Interorganizational work flows, Political environment of IS,
Economic value-added (EVA), Politics, Status, Environmental protection, Computing
marketplace, Labour productivity, Economies of risk, Employment, Technical barriers
to trade, Insurance, Trends, Services Science, Non-tariff barriers to trade, International
trade, Institutions, Supply chain networks, Women and science, Economics of
information systems, Dotcom bubble, Internalisation, Media-dependent, New economy,
Marketplace, Stock options, Women and technology, Estonian logistics market.
The diversity of these terms simply refers the impact that IS/IT outsourcing may
have on supply chain within various industry and vice versa. For example, IS/IT
outsourcing may create new employment in a country at supply side but
unemployment demand side nations, which clearly illustrated by two
aforementioned keywords Unemployment and Unfilled vacancies. As shown in
above presented keywords list cultural differences likely to be problematic issue in
outsourcing market especially for call centre outsourcing. Governance, legal and
political issues also come to forefront as outsourcing causes turbulence and imbalances
in well established market. However, this analysis suggest that such issues are under
investigated, hence, offers further avenue for research related with outsourcing.
Organizational environment. The organizational issues and topics includes areas of
research such as organizational characteristics (e.g. size), organizational functions
(e.g. marketing), task characteristics (e.g. complexity), and organizational dynamics
(e.g. organizational change) (Barki and Rivard, 1988). Considering this classification
130 keywords related with these in IS/IT outsourcing research has been grouped A multi-
within this category. From these 130 keywords only 21 terms appeared twice or more disciplinary
than twice (see Table XVI). Clearly supply chain management, business process
re-engineering and small and medium enterprises were three most frequently used profile
keywords within this category which is not surprisingly given the effect of IS/IT
outsourcing on organisational processes and supply chain management. In many
instances in order to make outsourcing as a tool for competitive advantage it is 241
important to re-engineer business processes. Traditionally, outsourcing is widely
implemented by large organisations. However, recently many scholars begin to ask
question if outsourcing is equally beneficial and feasible for implementation in small
and medium enterprises (SMEs). This has led to publications of many articles
examining outsourcing in SMEs context. Remaining 18 keywords with two or more
occurrences are listed in Table XVI.
The keywords that have appeared only once includes: Advisors, Alliance, Asset life
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Findings presented in Table XIX illustrate that a large number of articles (C 87; 69
per cent) in our analysed samples were empirical in nature. A good number of articles
(C 39; 31 per cent) employed theoretical approach. Within empirical category field
studies (i.e. survey, questionnaire and other quantitative methods) emerged as most
utilised methodology, followed by case study (which also includes interviews) method.
Only couple of studies employed a combination of both case studies and field studies.
However, a large number (C 24, 19.1 per cent) studies utilised other empirical
methods. Amongst theoretical methods illustrative method emerged as largest
category, which is closely followed by applied-conceptual category (see Table XIX).
Comparative numbers between this and previous study (Gonzalez et al. 2006)
suggest slight increase in empirical studies coupled with slight decrease in theoretical
studies. Such trend also reported by Gonzalez et al. (2006). Other trend that emerged
from the comparative data number of studies with field study method have
increased over case study. The most unusual trend that emerged from the
Table suggests that approximately 14 per cent increase in use of alternative empirical
methods (other than case and field studies) in publications appeared between 2006 and
2008. Contrastingly, use of both conceptual and applied-conceptual methods has
decreased in recent publications, whilst proportion of illustrative studies are remains
same in both the studies.
et al. 2006, p. 827). This is followed by software development category (C 21; 16.7
per cent). Both remaining categories contain fewer articles. Application rental services
(mainly via ASP) category includes eight (6.3 per cent) articles. Six (4.8 per cent)
articles dealt with outsourcing in relation with the e-commerce/e-business. In terms of
trends, proportion of articles in general and application category has decreased but in
remaining two categories has increased.
scheme which necessitates a modified scheme require for future such works.
Second major problem within this scheme is having category other, which consist
of many studies on IS/IT outsourcing (see Table XX) addressing some of the cultural,
socioeconomic and industry specific issues. This topic evidently requires naming as
socio-political-economic-legal environment and should accommodate any issues with
such environmental conditions which outsourcing practice undertaken.
A further issue with this classification scheme is ambiguity for example success
factors included within client perspective but it could be also relevant within vendor
and relationship perspectives. Considering above issues and limitations of the existing
categorisation scheme (Gonzalez et al., 2006), a need to have more open and flexible
framework was felt. Hereafter, one such possible scheme based on previous works are
proposed and briefly discussed.
248
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Figure 1.
Classification scheme for
IS/IT outsourcing research
6. Conclusions
Realizing the importance of IS/IT outsourcing both in public and private sectors and
multi-disciplinary nature of its publication outlets, we have made this attempt to
provide a comprehensive and systematic survey of literature on outsourcing and also
identify studies that has had most impact in shaping research in this area in past 20
years. This paper systemically:
.
analyses the distribution/trends of research on IS/IT outsourcing across subject
category, journals, year of publications and country;
.
determines the frequently published authors and productive institutions for
conducting research on IS/IT outsourcing;
.
explores the trend of collaborative nature (co-author analysis) of research on
IS/IT outsourcing;
. LIATdetermines the impact of published studies on IS/IT outsourcing related
research;
.
analyse the trend of topics/research issues and utilised theories & methods; and
finally
.
explores the challenges and limitations of existing research and to provide future
research directions.
The following are the key trends that emerged from the analysis of 315 publications A multi-
that appeared between 1992 and 2008: disciplinary
.
Research on outsourcing of IS/IT is truly multi-disciplinary in nature as journals profile
from 38 subject areas have published such research.
.
A large number of journals are open to publish research on IS/IT outsourcing
with three most active outlets are Journal of Information Technology, 251
Information & Management, and Industrial Management & Data Systems.
.
Past three years have been most productive years in terms of publishing IS/IT
outsourcing research which likely to continue in future.
.
Majority of research on IS/IT outsourcing were conducted in two countries
USA and UK.
.
Willcocks, LP from UK and Lacity, M.C. from USA have published largest
number of articles on IS/IT outsourcing.
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.
The University of Missouri from USA and the University of Oxford based in the
UK are the two most active institutions for facilitating research on IS/IT
outsourcing.
.
A very large proportion of IS/IT outsourcing research is collaborative in nature.
.
Willcocks, LP and Lacity, M.C. are not only most productive authors but one of
their joint study is most influential as it is cited by largest number of studies.
.
Resource-based theory, agency theory, trust and transaction cost
economics/theories are the most utilised theories in IS/IT outsourcing research.
.
Case study as a qualitative method and two quantitative methods (namely,
survey and Analytic hierarchy process) are the most utilised research methods in
IS/IT outsourcing research.
. Management of IS/IT outsourcing related issues (such as project management,
contract, risk management, control, success and downsizing) is most examined
topic category.
.
Many less frequently examined topics forms example of emerging line of
research. For example, success factors, ASP, and client-provider relationship are
less frequently utilised areas than others (see Table XX) and likely to form
emerging line of research.
.
The impact of socio-economic-political-legal issues on outsourcing and vice versa
is less explored areas that require further attention of outsourcing researchers.
Emerging protectionism and anti-outsourcing policy of a number of countries
likely to change dynamics and state of the outsourcing practice. Therefore, it is
important to understand and uncover consequences of such recent
developments, which may help outsourcing organisations (both client and
vendors) to form strategy for dealing with any adverse situation. Organisational
issues (particularly supply chain management, organisational structure and
design) also require further attention. Furthermore, given the criticality of the
nature of the client-vendor relationship this area is worthy of further research
activity.
JEIM Limitations
23,2 It is important to acknowledge that this study has some limitations, and readers should
be aware of these and indeed interpret the material presented in this paper within the
context of these limitations. Firstly, our search activities were restricted to occurrences
of specified keywords in the article topics only, and we fully acknowledge that there
may be some studies which lack all the specified keywords in the topic and abstracts,
252 but still focus upon outsourcing in the main text. We limited our search to the journals
indexed only in Web of Science, but there are many well known journals in the IS field
that are not indexed in this product, and this clearly will have limited our ability to
identify all relevant articles. For example, a number of papers (such as Aktas and
Ulengin, 2005; Gowan and Mathieu, 2005; McBride et al., 2007; Ngwenyama and
Sullivan, 2007) on outsourcing related issues are published in one of the well respected
IS Journal Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM). However, these
papers did not appear in our search result as this journal is not indexed within WoS
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Further reading
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Senior Editor of the DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, Managing Editor of
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Assistant Editor of Transforming Government: People,
Process and Policy and a member of the editorial board/review board of a number of other journals,
and is a member of the Association of Information Systems, IFIP WG8.6 and the Global Institute of
Flexible Systems Management, New Delhi.
1. MohdNishat Faisal College of Business & Economics, Qatar University Doha Qatar Syed Asif Raza
College of Business & Economics, Qatar University Doha Qatar Zahir Irani Brunel University London
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Zahir Irani Brunel University London United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . 2016. IT Outsourcing Intent in Academic Institutions
in GCC Countries: An Empirical Investigation and Multi-Criteria Decision Model for Vendor Selection.
Journal of Enterprise Information Management 29:3. . [Abstract] [PDF]
2. Ronald Jabangwe, Darja mite, Emil Hessbo. 2016. Distributed software development in an offshore
outsourcing project: A case study of source code evolution and quality. Information and Software
Technology 72, 125-136. [CrossRef]
3. Peter Westphal, Amrik Sohal. 2016. Outsourcing decision-making: does the process matter?. Production
Planning & Control 1-15. [CrossRef]
4. Huigang Liang, Jian-Jun Wang, Yajiong Xue, Xiaocong Cui. 2016. IT outsourcing research from 1992 to
2013: A literature review based on main path analysis. Information & Management 53, 227-251. [CrossRef]
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5. Naomi Wangari Mwai Kenya Polytechnic University College, Nairobi, Kenya Joseph Kiplangat
Department of Library, Records Management and Information Studies, Moi University, Eldoret,
Kenya David Gichoya Department of Library, Records Management and Information Studies, Moi
University, Eldoret, Kenya . 2014. Application of resource dependency theory and transaction cost theory
in analysing outsourcing information communication services decisions. The Electronic Library 32:6,
786-805. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
6. Ligita Gaspareniene, Jovita Vasauskaite. 2014. Analysis of the Criterions of Outsourcing Contracts in
Public and Private Sectors: Review of the Scientific Literature. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
156, 274-279. [CrossRef]
7. Paul Lyons School of Business, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Louis Brennan School of
Business, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland . 2014. A typology and meta-analysis of outsourcing
relationship frameworks. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal 7:2, 135-172. [Abstract] [Full
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8. Boonlert Watjatrakul Information Technology, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand . 2014.
Vendor selection strategy for IT outsourcing: the weighted-criteria evaluation technique. Journal of
Enterprise Information Management 27:2, 122-138. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
9. Ligita Gaspareniene, Rita Remeikiene, Grazina StartieneOutsourcing As A Measure Seeking For Cost
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