Abstract
The increasing trend of engaging multiple vendors, coupled with the concern for “possible” loss of knowledge in outsourcing relationship, compels us to investigate organizational learning in multi-vendor outsourcing from a social relation perspective. The nature of social relation has been conceptualized in terms of how organizational relationships with social entities facilitate and/or inhibit organizational learning. In particular, we examine how two different relational structures – single vendor dominant model and multi-vendor dominant model – are associated with the two types of organizational learning – exploitative and exploratory learning. Furthermore, this study tries to investigate how three critical dimensions – structural (core vs. non-core functions), affective (partnership vs. transaction) and cognitive (business value vs. IT capability) - in social relations affect the relationships between the two relational structures and the two types of organizational learning in the context of IT outsourcing. The proposed hypotheses will be empirically tested via questionnaires in a field-study. This study attempts to shed light on how clients can better engage in exploitative and exploratory learning to reap the benefits of multi-vendor outsourcing approach.
Recommended Citation
Koo, Yunmo and Lee, Jae-Nam, "THE RELATIONAL STRUCTURE OF MULTI-VENDOR OUTSOURCING: ITS IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING" (2016). PACIS 2016 Proceedings. 185.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2016/185