The Role of Cultural Differences and Cultural Intelligence in Controlling IS Offshoring Projects: A Theoretical Model

Cultural differences between outsourcers and vendor firms in offshore locations pose unique management challenges. One of these challenges is to find a control strategy that fits the cultural setting. However, most of the previous research has analyzed cultural and control issues separately from one another. The objective of this paper is to bring together these two distinct research streams. The result is a conceptual model describing the relationships between cultural differences and the choice of different control modes in IS offshoring projects. Propositions are derived from organizational control and national culture theory. In particular, we introduce the concept of cultural intelligence as moderating the relationship between cultural differences and the choice of control. The resulting conceptual model developed in this paper makes important theoretical contributions to IS offshoring and serves as a basis for future empirical research.