Information Technology (IT) outsourcing is a major issue facing IT management. IT outsourcing has evolved from outsourcing IT functions externally, to Application Service Provider’s (ASP’s) and now to the next phase of IT outsourcing: utility computing (UC). UC as defined in this research turns computing infrastructure into a flexible, on demand pay per use service. Drawing on theories in trust...

Although considerable research has been conducted into the definition and classification of business models (BM) over the past decade, not much research has focused on the characteristics of transactions with distinct phases in these BMs. Both transaction cost economics and consumer behavior research highlight the relevance of transaction phases. We develop a seven factor framework that differe...

W hy do firms exist? What is their function, and what determines their scope? These remain the central questions in the economics of organization. They are also central questions for business executives and corporate strategists. The worldwide volume of corporate mergers and acquisitions exceeded $1.6 trillion in 1997. It is hard to imagine that so much time, effort and investment bankers’ fees...

To date, IT outsourcing research has focused on applied problems and case studies. Two bodies of theory offer useful and needed perspectives on both the risks and the factors or variables which affect the risk of outsourcing IT. Transaction cost economics provides a thorough description of the conditions under which the risks of opportunism and inflated transaction costs are high. The Resource-...

This paper presents a model that complements the research stream of transaction cost economics with the dynamic capabilities approach. The paper shows that, even though technological alliances involving specific assets deployed in emerging industries are exposed to high transaction costs, they possess attributes that make them attractive. First, they facilitate the creation of tacit competencie...

There are now hundreds of empirical studies that have confirmed the main predictions of transaction cost economics regarding the alignment of transactions with governance 2001) have noted, there are very few empirical studies that demonstrate the impact of this economizing alignment on performance. Some critics of the theory have noted that in order for the theory to be of relevance to other or...

A variety of contract typologies that exist in the literature are helpful exploration different approaches contractual relations, but only when measured with right instruments. Although Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) has a distinct, high-level, and abstract typology for contracts, it still lacks measurement scale. In this paper, scale TCE (classical, neo-classical, relational contracts) was d...

The views presented here have greatly benefited from discussions with the participants at the The insightful and thorough (albeit, in our view, somehow "imperialist") comparative discussion by Oliver Williamson of the governance and competence views of economic organisations (Williamson, 1999a) as well as the daring "counter-reformation manifesto" by Foss and Foss, trying to re-interpret most v...

IS research has considered the outsourcing decision from the perspective of transaction cost economics (TCE) and institutional theory. In this research, we consider how the appropriation of the logic of transaction cost economics is contingent on decision makers’ institutional context. The institutional contexts contrasted are professional versus political Ritu Agarwal was the accepting senior ...

The views presented here have greatly benefited from discussions with the participants at the The insightful and thorough (albeit, in our view, somehow "imperialist") comparative discussion by Oliver Williamson of the governance and competence views of economic organisations (Williamson, 1999a) as well as the daring "counter-reformation manifesto" by Foss and Foss, trying to re-interpret most v...