Examining the Development Trajectory of IT Outsourcing: A Main Path Analysis

Authors

Min-Chih Tang, National Taiwan University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Chen-Hao Huang, National Taiwan University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Feng-Hsu Chiang, National Taiwan University of Science and TechnologyFollow

Paper Number

1217

Abstract

As information system (IS) research pays more and more attention to information technology (IT) outsourcing, the research body of the latter has constantly been expanding, thus changing the core concept of IT outsourcing. Considering the changing nature of IT outsourcing, this study uses a systematic review approach, main path analysis, to examine the most critical IT outsourcing literature and its contemporary popular research areas. This study first conducts the key-route main path analysis and divides the main paths into three phases, including IT outsourcing as a strategy, relational embeddedness in IT outsourcing, and boundary spanning in IT outsourcing. Second, the multiple global main paths reveal five popular sub-themes: the costs and risks of ITO, decision-making and problem-solving, factors and decisions of cloud computing outsourcing, conflict in outsourcing relationships, and governance. This study thus furthers the understanding of IT outsourcing by conducting a citation-based analysis for mapping the literature on ITO.

Comments

Paper Number 1217

Recommended Citation

Tang, Min-Chih; Huang, Chen-Hao; and Chiang, Feng-Hsu, "Examining the Development Trajectory of IT Outsourcing: A Main Path Analysis" (2022). PACIS 2022 Proceedings. 76.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2022/76