Relationship Archetypes in Information Systems Outsourcing Arrangements: An Exploratory Analysis

An ongoing discussion in IS research and practice emphasizes that divergent expectations of clients and vendors seem to contribute to outsourcing failures. Research in IS outsourcing has thus increasingly turned its attention to the role of relationship management between client and vendor. So far, studies have focused on addressing relationship factors in general, not taking different outsourcing settings and expectations of client and vendor into account. However, the importance and characteristics of relationship factors depend very much on the type of outsourcing arrangement. Extant research hardly distinguishes different types of relationships and their specific characteristics in certain outsourcing environments. Based on a comprehensive literature review and initial expert interviews we develop a typology of five archetypes of outsourcing relationships that match customer expectations of the development of an outsourcing arrangement to the constituent factors of outsourcing relationships. Managerial implications evolving from this typology and directions for future research are discussed.