Strategic innovation through outsourcing – A theoretical review

Competition in the Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process (BPO) industry is increasingly moving from being motivated by cost savings towards strategic benefits that service providers can offer to their clients. Innovation one such benefit expected nowadays outsourcing engagements. The rising importance of innovation has been noticed acknowledged not only Systems (IS) literature, but also other management streams as strategy. However, date, these individual strands research remain largely isolated each other. Our theoretical review addresses this gap consolidating analyzing on ITO BPO context. article set includes 95 papers published between 1998 2020 outlets IS related fields. We craft a four-phase framework integrates prior insights about (1) antecedents decision pursue settings; (2) arrangement options facilitate relationships; (3) generation innovations; (4) realized outcomes, assessed literature. find landscape date skewed, with many studies focusing first two phases. last phases relatively uncharted. discuss how innovation-oriented compare established cost-oriented Finally, we directions for future research.