Ownership principles for distributed database design

Includes bibliographical references.Marshall Van Alstyne, Erik Brynjolfsson, Stuart E. Madnick

Information Systems and Decision Quality: Lessons from Information Economics and Agency Theory

One of the arguments for using information systems (IS) is the expectation to enhance decision quality and, thereby, to increase overall business value. Practical experiences as well as empirical evidence show that this expectation is not always fulfilled and explanations are manifold. The paper applies information economics and, especially, agency theory as explanatory framework for analyzing the relation among IS and decision quality. Thereby, novel insights for unfulfilled expectations related to effects of IS on decision quality are derived. The paper seeks to substantiate the claim for an intensified agency-based research into IS - not only to enrich the IS discipline but also to indicate that agency-based research on management information could benefit from the IS discipline

Choosing between Auctions and Negotiations in Online B2B Markets for IT Services: The Effect of Prior Relationships and Performance

The choice of contract allocation mechanism in procurement affects such aspects of transactions as information exchange between buyer and supplier, supplier competition, pricing and, eventually, performance. In this study we investigate the buyer’s choice between reverse auctions and bilateral negotiations as an allocation mechanism for IT services contracts. Prior studies into allocation mechanism choice focused on factors pertaining to discrete exchange situation, such as con-tract complexity or availability of suppliers. We broaden the research by focusing on buyers’ past exchange relationships with vendors. Based on the literature on the economics of contracting and agency theory, we hypothesize that prior re-peat interaction with vendors favors the use of negotiations over auctions in the next transaction, while the need to explore the marketplace due to buyer’s inexperience or dissatisfaction with vendor’s performance in the most recent project leads to the use of auctions instead of negotiations. We find support for these hypotheses in a longitudinal dataset of 2,081 IT projects realized by 91 repeat buyers at a leading online services marketplace over a period of eight years. Taken together, the results show that analyzing B2B auctions and negotiations should move beyond analyzing discrete instances and instead analyze them in the context of the individual firm’s history and supplier strategy.outsourcing;IT services;online marketplace;reverse auctions

CRITICAL ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE CONTRACTING ISSUES: RIGHTS, ASSURANCES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Unfavorable contractual agreement can be detrimental to the well-being of an organization. Often software contracts are written to favor the vendor and their terminology is vague and in a high-level language that can make organizations vulnerable. Among all IT applications, Enterprise Software is particularly critical due to integrating various critical business processes. In addition, ES implementations are among the most expensive types of IT implementations. Thus, ES contracting mistakes can be particularly costly for organizations

CONTRACTUAL AND RELATIONAL GOVERNANCE OF SOFTWARE OUTSOURCING PROJECTS: A PROPOSED RESEARCH MODEL AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Organizations are under increasing pressure to exhibit the value of their outsourcing. However, previous IS outsourcing research studies failed to provide evidence on how IT client-provider relationships should be managed to ensure outsourcing success. This article draws on theories of transaction cost and social exchange to develop a model examining outsourcing relationship governance mechanisms. Important determinants of contractual and relational governance and the effectiveness of the control mechanisms on relational outcomes, opportunism and commitment, are examined. This research agenda may theoretically extend IS outsourcing research by incorporating a framework to explore outsourcing relationship management and to practically explain software outsourcing phenomenon

A Dynamic View of the Relationship between Software Development Outsourcing Propensity and Industry Environment

Despite the progress scholars have made on the relationship between IT outsourcing (ITO) and industry environment, our knowledge of this link is still ambiguous and limited. Drawing on recent research on the evolvement of ITO market, we extend our understanding by taking a dynamic view of this issue. Specifically, we focus on software development outsourcing (SDO) and three key elements of industry environment, namely resource munificence, industry concentration and technology change. We argue that the evolvement of ITO market has a moderating effect onthe relationship between SDO propensity and industry environment. Using industry-level data for U.S. private industries from 1998 to 2015, we find that industry environment’s impact on SDO propensity does change with the evolvement of the ITO market. Our findings provide insights on the relationship between SDO propensity and industry environment andindicate the importance of a dynamic view for understanding ITO-related phenomena

Outsourcing of Information Systems as a Strategy for Organizational Alignment and Transformation

Outsourcing of services is usually viewed as a way to increase or decrease capacity at the margin. By outsourcing a firm can vary its ability to provide goods or services such as information technology (IT) processing capacity or applications development, without taking on the long term commitment of permanent staff or equipment Today, outsourcing provides new options for managers to provide information technology infrastructures and services to a firm. In this paper we identify ways in which outsourcing may be used tactically to better align business and information technology strategies. Specifically, we consider how selective outsourcing enables alignment of incentives, business revenues and IT infrastructure costs, and how organizational intent can be made more consistent with a firm' s capabilities. We propose that outsourcing as an information systems management strategy can enable better control and lower agency costs as managers benefit from better information through external benchmarking. We also consider the role of outsourcing as a vehicle to support major organizational transformation, and as a device for enabling new models of organization. Based on our analysis we propose a series of testable propositions about outsourcing. The contributions of this paper include extension of business strategy and information technology alignment concepts to incorporate the interdependence between projects, product life cycles, and technology transfer. Most importantly, the paper highlights new directions for outsourcing research, focusing on the effects of outsourcing on the IT organization, the processes of internal technology development and the transfer of technologies between organizations.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Towards a unified model for successful implementation of outsourcing and reversibility of information systems

AbstractOutsourcing information systems services is considered a strategic decision for many organizations because it is a risky endeavor. When issues arise during the outsourcing process, many organizations tend to switch their operations from external vendors back to in-house, i.e., implement reversibility or back-sourcing. There is evidence of sufficient scale to warrant further attention to the reversibility process due to the increased failure of outsourcing projects. One of the main goals of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework that can help implement both outsourcing and reversibility projects successfully. In addition to the risks associated with the outsourcing process, most researches focus on the outsourcing process after the relationship between the vendor and the organization is established, while the activities related to pre-outsourcing and post-outsourcing stages are neglected or given little concern. Another objective of this work is to integrate the outsourcing phase with the pre and post outsourcing phases. This paper also aims to identify the critical factors affecting the outsourcing and reversibility processes, thereby dealing with the outsourcing risks from the beginning rather than as an afterthought