Bandula Jayatilaka

IT Sourcing — A Dynamic Phenomenon: Forming an Institutional Theory Perspective

Research as well as industry surveys have shown that IS outsourcing is not a static phenomenon and success of it is not a definitive outcome. Lack of success in IS outsourcing has led companies to seek costly alterations in their IS outsourcing arrangements (Input 1999c). In general, companies shift IS sourcing due to lack of success or due to newly emerging conditions and needs. Therefore, improved understanding of the factors influencing such shifts in companies’ outsourcing arrangements may become useful in making better decisions and in developing the IS outsourcing research stream. Specifically, the following research questions can be raised at this stage. What are the concepts relevant for explaining the changes in sourcing and theoretical foundations that can explain the processes and antecedents to change? Review of past IS outsourcing research shows that there is a dearth of research on the continuation of IS outsourcing arrangements. Nam, Rajagopalan, Rao, and Chaudhury, (1996) investigated the determinants that would lead to continuation of IS outsourcing, which they referred to as a secondlevel decision to outsource and treated the continuation as an isolated static phenomenon and did not view it as a change process.

Determinants of ASP choice: an integrated perspective

With the rise in the availability of scalable network technologies and resources, Application Service Providers (ASPs) have become increasingly more feasible sources for obtaining IS services. ASP research represents an opportunity to integrate previous research on outsourcing, applied in the area of ASP choice. Historically, outsourcing research has adopted many theoretical perspectives, including transaction cost, resource-based, resource-dependence, and knowledge-based. We will apply these perspectives in the ASP context. When obtaining IS services through an ASP, factors other than cost and those explained by the resource-based and resource-dependent perspectives can become paramount. The knowledge-based perspective enables us to examine knowledge risk and integration requirements. Drawing upon past research and an exploratory study conducted with 35 firms, an integrated, theoretical model is proposed which combines the transaction cost, resource based, resource dependency and knowledge based perspectives. The model is used to explain the antecedent conditions useful for making decisions on IT sourcing through ASPs.

Changes in IT sourcing arrangements

Purpose – Companies are increasingly changing their IT sourcing arrangements. Such changes often involve significant costs. The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain IT sourcing as a dynamic organizational phenomenon and to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers and outcomes of IT sourcing changes at organizational level.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach with interpretive analysis of historical data. Data are collected from companies through interviews and review of public documents where available.Findings – The underlying tendencies of change are either primarily associated with institutional processes, or with what we term “IT‐driven” considerations. The perceived success of IT outsourcing in companies is dependent on these underlying tendencies.Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory study and the findings on the underlying tendencies in change will be helpful in further theory development and research on IT outsourcing changes.Practical implications...

An epistemological taxonomy for knowledge management systems analysis

Knowledge management systems (KMS) play increasingly important roles in organizations due to the realization of the value of knowledge and capabilities of computerized systems to support knowledge management activities. Earlier researchers have explained the activities and processes important for knowledge management, which is useful for the development of systems to support knowledge management. The wide variety of knowledge domains and interactions among them in organizations makes it necessary to understand the broad epistemological spectrum that can enable effective utilization of computerized systems for knowledge management. Although, previous research had considered the processes required for dissemination of knowledge in organization, more fundamental epistemological consideration, along objective and subjective dimensions enhances analysis of systems requirements. This paper attempts to conceptually develop taxonomy useful for analysis of knowledge requirements and for implementation of systems. Furthermore, the paper illustrates the classification using exploratory cases.

From Virtual Organization to E-Business: Transformational Structuration

This article shows how the technical hype of 1990s has been transformed into the e-business organizations at the beginning of the 21st century. The authors took an interpretive stance in this study, grounded theory, and investigated the ontology of virtual organization by the metaphorical analysis. The metaphorical analysis adopted in this study provides the analytical power to conceptualize the social structure of virtual organization in the context of structuration theory with the process of grounded theory. As the e-business structuration indicates in this study, virtualization, the metaphor of virtual organization is interpreted as flexible domination, where the rational relationships in power distribution with other e-business characterized temporal virtual bond with low switching costs.

On Categorizing the IS Research Literature: User Oriented Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach for categorizing the body of knowledge captured in the existing literature, past and present in such a way that contributions to the use side of systems development are made explicit. The new twist of this approach is that it seeks to bridge the most prevalent divides currently fragmenting the IS literature by offering an integrative classification framework for “use side” oriented IS research. We call our approach to literature classification “substance oriented”, because it builds on social theory concepts related to user concerns. It follows neither the latest paradigmatic nor earlier inductive citation or key word based literature classification schemes. Instead, it explicitly builds on the core concepts of Giddens’ Structuration Theory (ST), at least at its highest level. The approach has some affinity to Ritzer’s (1991) “metatheorizing”. (Less)