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Exploring IT Outsourcing Governance with Vendor’s Interpersonal Networks: A Case Study

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Governing Sourcing Relationships. A Collection of Studies at the Country, Sector and Firm Level (Global Sourcing 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 195))

Abstract

The governance of IT outsourcing (ITO) has been identified as an essential determinant for ITO success. Prior studies have shed light on effective governance forms in different organizational contexts, but few have studied the association between governance forms and interpersonal networks. With a single case study from a vendor’s perspective in an ITO dyad, this research strives to explore and empirically understand how interpersonal networks reflect and influence ITO governance. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was conducted for whole-network analysis on 24 team members in an ITO vendor company. In addition, open-ended interviews with six selected team members were utilized to identify the governance form from the vendor’s perspective. The findings suggest that the similarity between formal and informal interpersonal networks reflects a hierarchical form of governance; and the hierarchy governance is in turn reinforced by the geographically dispersed nature of team members.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to give special thanks to Prof. Harry Bouwman for his valuable comments and advice on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TUCS – Turku Centre for Computer Science, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turun Yliopisto, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Tingting Lin

  2. School of Business, Department of Information and Service Economy, Aalto University, Chydenia, P.O. Box 21220, 00076, Helsinki, Finland

    Riitta Hekkala

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  1. Tingting Lin
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Correspondence to Tingting Lin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aston Business School, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Julia Kotlarsky

  2. Loughborough School of Business and Economics, Loughborough, United Kingdom

    Ilan Oshri

  3. London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom

    Leslie P. Willcocks

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Lin, T., Hekkala, R. (2014). Exploring IT Outsourcing Governance with Vendor’s Interpersonal Networks: A Case Study. In: Kotlarsky, J., Oshri, I., Willcocks, L. (eds) Governing Sourcing Relationships. A Collection of Studies at the Country, Sector and Firm Level. Global Sourcing 2014. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 195. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11367-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11367-8_2

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