A Conjoint Approach to Understanding IT Application Services Outsourcing

The sourcing of application development is becoming increasingly complex. While much prior work has investigated sourcing in a homogeneous marketplace, sourcing choices have increased in complexity, with a myriad of choices ranging from insourcing to domestic outsourcing to engaging Application Service Providers (ASP) to offshoring . In this study, based upon four organizational theories (Transaction Cost, Resource-Based View, Resource-Dependence View, and the Knowledge-Based View of the Firm), we suggest 10 attributes that firms consider when deciding upon outsourcing of applications. We tested the attributes’ strength by performing conjoint analysis on data collected from 84 IS executives. We constructed profiles, which are combinations of attributes having different levels. Each executive responded to 18 such distinct profiles and selected corresponding outsourcing choices. Our results found that the three most significant drivers of an IT application service choice were cost, risk, and vendor capability. However, the importance of these drivers varied across the different sourcing options. Based upon this, we offer implications for decision-makers and researchers, along with directions for future research

Factors That Influence Application Migration To Cloud Computing In Government Organizations: A Conjoint Approach

Cloud computing is becoming a viable option for Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and business stakeholders to consider in today’s information technology (IT) environment, characterized by shrinking budgets and dynamic changes in the technology landscape. The objective of this study is to help Federal Government decision makers appropriately decide on the suitability of applications for migration to cloud computing. I draw from four theoretical perspectives: transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, agency theory and dynamic capabilities theory and use a conjoint analysis approach to understand stakeholder attitudes, opinions and behaviors in their decision to migrate applications to cloud computing. Based on a survey of 81 government cloud computing stakeholders, this research examined the relative importance of thirteen factors that organizations consider when migrating applications to cloud computing. Our results suggest that trust in the cloud computing vendor is the most significant factor, followed by the relative cost advantage, sensing capabilities and application complexity. A total of twelve follow-up interviews were conducted to provide explanation of our results. The contributions of the dissertation are twofold: 1) it provides novel insights into the relative importance of factors that influence government organizations’ decision to migrate applications to cloud computing, and 2) it assists senior government decision makers to appropriately weigh and prioritize the factors that are critical in application migration to cloud computing

Taxonomy of Technological IT Outsourcing Risks: Support for Risk Identification and Quantification

The past decade has seen an increasing interest in IT outsourcing as it promises companies many economic benefits. In recent years, IT paradigms, such as Software-as-a-Service or Cloud Computing using third-party services, are increasingly adopted. Current studies show that IT security and data privacy are the dominant factors affecting the perceived risk of IT outsourcing. Therefore, we explicitly focus on determining the technological risks related to IT security and quality of service characteristics associated with IT outsourcing. We conducted an extensive literature review, and thoroughly document the process in order to reach high validity and reliability. 149 papers have been evaluated based on a review of the whole content and out of the finally relevant 68 papers, we extracted 757 risk items. Using a successive refinement approach, which involved reduction of similar items and iterative re-grouping, we establish a taxonomy with nine risk categories for the final 70 technological risk items. Moreover, we describe how the taxonomy can be used to support the first two phases of the IT risk management process: risk identification and quantification. Therefore, for each item, we give parameters relevant for using them in an existing mathematical risk quantification model

Leveraging Market Research Techniques in IS: A Review and Framework of Conjoint Analysis Studies in the IS Discipline

With cloud and mobile computing, information systems (IS) have evolved towards mass-market services. While IS success requires user involvement, the IS discipline lacks methods that allow organizations to integrate the “voice of the customer” into mass-market services with individual and dispersed users. Conjoint analysis (CA), from marketing research, provides insights into user preferences and measures user trade-offs for multiple product features simultaneously. While CA has gained popularity in the IS domain, existing studies have mostly been one-time efforts, which has resulted in little knowledge accumulation about CA’s applications in IS. We argue that CA could have a significant impact on IS research (and practice) if this method was further developed and adopted for IS application areas. From reviewing 70 CA studies published between 1999 and 2019 in the IS discipline, we found that CA supports in initially conceptualizing, iteratively designing, and evaluating IS and their business models. We critically assess the methodological choices along the CA procedure to provide recommendations and guidance on “how” to leverage CA techniques in future IS research. We then synthesize our findings into a framework for conjoint analysis studies in IS that outlines “where” researchers and practitioners can apply CA along the IS lifecycle

An Adaptive Conjoint Analysis of Freight Service Alternatives: Evaluating the Maritime Alternative

The growing interest towards a re-balancing of freight traffic over the different modes, has brought renewed focus on the "Motorways of the sea" as they have been defined by the EU Commission in the recently issued White paper (2001). These could constitute a valid alternative to land transport over medium-long distance, favouring, at the same time, a greater integration among different modes. However, the great potential of this alternative - which is increasingly capturing the interest of policymakers - should be evaluated also in the light of the level of competitiveness nowadays required by the operators. The latter, in fact, need a flexible transport system capable of adapting to the modern system of production and completely integrated within the logistics networks (both existing and under construction). Furthermore, in order to effectively promote the use of this alternative, it is necessary to undertake a number of initiatives directed mainly at reducing the bottlenecks currently present within the ports and in the links between ports and their interland. In determining the necessary investments in intermodal sea-land infrastructures it is essential to evaluate the dimension and the extent of the potential re-orientation of traffic flows towards maritime transport which would yield insight on the appropriate/optimal dimension of such investments. In order to achieve this, it would be essential to have a set of information not only on the current movements but also on their potential reallocation. An estimation of the latter cannot be achieved without an in-depth analysis of shippers behaviour. However, while in the last year a number of documents have been put forward on the great opportunities offered by the development of the "Motorways of the sea" in re-directing freight flows, there is a lack of any empirical analysis on the determinants of such choice by operators. In other words, a lot has been done in analysing supply while very little in analysing demand. In this work we aim to identify the value that the user assigns to the specific transport alternative and the factors - related to both the mode and the specific organisation of the companies - that exert a significant influence on the choice of the shipper. These elements represent a necessary prerequisite for any previsions. The methodology used falls within the definition of conjoint Analysis. We will measure the trade-offs users of freight transport services make in choosing between alternative modes. We will also use the result to predict their choices with regards to alternatives which, at the moment might not be present, but which might be placed on the market. The assumption we make, following the approach of Bolis and Maggi (1999) and Fowkes and Tweddle (1996), is that the transport service can be ?broken down? into its component attributes. As it is well known, conjoint analysis allows to determine the value that individuals place on any product as equivalent to the sum of the utility they derive from all the attributes making up a product. In particular, given the successful applications to land transport, we use "Adaptive Stated Preferences" (ASP) techniques adjusted in order to carry out the analysis of freight transport demand in the maritime context. We aim to evaluate the preferences of operators in terms of service attributes of sea transport. Given the purposes of this study, for the moment we focus the empirical application on a specific geographical context. In particular, we analyse the preferences of operators localised in the north-west regions of Italy with respect to the possibility of accessing a maritime ro-ro service from the ports of Genoa or La Spezia. The analysis is carried out in two phases: a postal survey and a subsequent direct interview. The latter is done creating a ?transport experiment? and recording the behaviour and the choices of the interviewed. Following this approach, we obtain an accurate estimation of operators? willingness to pay for the specific service characteristics (hard output) and we induce them to reveal the rank of their preferences for a set of potential new services (soft output). In the first part of the paper we give details of the specific transport options we are considering and we describe the project carried out, in the second part we illustrate the methodology used the and the necessary modification we have had to carry out in order to implement the study in a maritime context. In the third part we discuss the data collection process and we carry out a preliminary data analysis, while, in the fourth section, we present the results of the econometric model (logit model) used to analyse the data and we give some interpretation. Finally, in the last section, we present some concluding remarks.

An Analysis of Maritime Ro-Ro Freight Transport Service Attributes through Adaptive Stated Preference: an Application to a Sample of Freight Forwarders

In this paper we present preliminary evidence from a pilot study carried out with the primary objective of testing the validity of adaptive conjoint data collecting methods in analysing operators’ preferences when redirecting current on-land transport services to a hypothetical maritime ro-ro service alternative. The analysis has focussed on a sample of freight forwarders. Through a combination of Revealed Preferences and Adaptive Stated Preference Experiments we have constructed a database of their preferences’ toward the maritime ro-ro alternative using a set of transport service attributes: price, reliability, frequency, transit time, etc. We have estimated the relevant parameters through a Tobit model and have been able to calculate relative trade-off values among the significant attributes. The resulting ranking highlights the relative importance of reliability and frequency in the decision to switch to maritime services

How Offshore Outsourcing is Perceived: Why Do Some Consumers Feel More Threatened?

As globalization intensifies, multinational companies are not only compelled to expand their operations, but are also facing greater pressure to enhance productivity and concomitant return on investment (ROI). One way to achieve cost efficiencies is by offshoring selected business operations to overseas firms. Such offshoring, however, has generated public concern and, in some cases, outrage. Angst against offshoring is based on many perceptions, including perceived job losses and damage to domestic industries. In the wake of this threat, multinational firms in Europe and North America confront a public relations problem in justifying their offshoring activities. Yet, no systematic study has investigated why some consumers feel threatened by offshoring while others do not. Our study addresses this concern by using Americans as a sample. We show that economic threat and consumer ethnocentrism have a negative impact on offshoring attitudes while perceived quality of services delivered by offshore firms has a positive effect. Implications are discussed

Distributed Knowledge Coordination across Virtual Organizational Boundaries

This paper examines boundary-spanning knowledge-coordination in the definition of information systems by the e-Commerce systems group for a global service consultancy. We report on the findings of an eighteen-month field study to investigate distributed and virtual knowledge coordination across organizational boundaries. Our study reveals multiple ways in which knowledge is coordinated by means of a web of functional and domain-expert roles, distributed knowledge-resources, and imposed or negotiated procedures. We identify a “problem- coordination distance” that relates to the organizational-span of coordination and the type of problems to be resolved. We observe that different forms of group memory are used to manage boundary-spanning collaboration according to three degrees of problem-coordination-distance. These findings are related to the potential use of knowledge management systems to support boundary-spanning coordination for enterprise managers in virtual organizations