Wolfgang Koenig

Determinants of IT Outsourcing Relationships: A Conceptual Model

How can relationship quality in outsourcing partnerships be achieved, sustained, and improved? In this paper we present a conceptual model that focuses on the identification of the relevant determinants for a successful IT outsourcing relationship as well as on the operationalization IT outsourcing relationship quality. We contribute to existing relationship literature by thoroughly examining existing constructs and, if applicable, spliting and redistributing them. We also consider additional relationship quality dimensions and determinants. The derived eleven dimensions and fifteen determinants are empirically validated in a subsequent three step empirical approach providing a much more detailed and throroughly structured relationship quality model which will eventually help practitioners in improving their cross- organizational IT-business relationships.

Modeling the Impact of Alignment Routines on IT Performance: An Approach to Making the Resource Based View Explicit

This paper investigates the link between IT and firm performance by combining different theoretical perspectives and emphasizing the role of routines in IT-Business alignment. The basic concept of routines is operationalized and presented in an algebraic form allowing for explicit modeling and using of findings from the literature on the resource based view (RBV) and IT-Business alignment. How to use IT to gain a sustainable competitive advantage and in turn a plus in firm performance is a key question in IS research. This paper contributes to this discussion by combining different theoretical perspectives and making them explicit. The results show that indeed routines are a fundamental concept to understand the linkage between IT resources and firm performance. The proposed model shows the functional relations known from literature that have not been explicated so far.

Added Value and Challenges of Industry-Academic Research Partnerships – The Example of the E-Finance Lab

The financial service industry is believed to be on the verge of a dramatic [r]evolution. A substantial redesign of its value chains aimed at reducing costs, providing more efficient and flexible services and enabling new products and revenue streams is imminent. But there seems to be no clear migration path or goal which can cast light on the question where the finance industry and its various players will be and should be in a decade from now. The imperative necessity for action taking has been recognized by practitioners as well as the academic world. This is why the E-Finance Lab (EFL) was founded in 2003 as a cooperation of the Universities Frankfurt and Darmstadt together with industry partners Accenture, Bearing- Point, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Borse, Deutsche Postbank, FinanzIT, IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, T-Systems, as well as DAB bank and IS.Teledata. The mission of the EFL is the development of industrial methods for the impending change process of the financial service industry. Important challenges include the design of smart production infrastructures, the development and evaluation of advantageous sourcing strategies, and smart selling concepts to enable new revenue streams for financial service providers in the future. The overall goal is to contribute methods and views to the realignment of the financial supply chain.