Software Application Outsourcing Contracts: An Agency Theory Perspective

Scholars have proposed agency, game, resource-dependency, and transaction cost theories as a means to study outsourcing. Although risks faced by outsourcing firms and developers (i.e., vendors) and corresponding agency costs have been identified, key agency constructs (e.g., firm competence, risk-neutrality of the developer) and their linkage to outsourcing practice (e.g., monitoring, screening) have not been extensively studied. In this research, we extend the classical agency theory by examining the impact of risk orientation of the outsourcing parties, application features, multi-period attributes and environmental factors on monitoring, bonding, compensation, screening, and signaling. By developing the agency framework, we set the stage for future empirical testing of key outsourcing constructs and their linkages

Information Systems Outsourcing: Linking Transaction Cost and Institutional Theories

In this article, we apply transaction cost theory (TCT) and institutional theory to the realm of IS outsourcing. TCT posits that firm\u27s outsourcing governance is influenced by transaction cost factors, namely, bounded rationality, opportunism, and risk. Institutional theory, on the other hand, has been advocated to explain non-choice behavior of organizations in the context of competitors, norms, and professional associations. Although TCT has been used extensively in the extant literature to study outsourcing arrangements, we argue that as IS outsourcing practices propagate in organizational fields, TCT explanations will take a back seat to institutional explanations. We appropriate the transaction cost framework to the IS outsourcing setting and consider when and how firm\u27s decision to adopt outsourcing and corresponding ex-ante screening and ex-post monitoring of the vendor will be influenced by mimetic, normative, and coercive institutional pressures. More specifically, we argue that greater the density and rate of adoption in outsourcing during innovation diffusion and stability stages, the greater the possibility that transaction cost factors will be replaced by institutional factors in explaining firms\u27 governance structures (decision to adopt outsourcing, and corresponding screening and monitoring). Conversely, we posit that when the institutional pressures are relatively weak, TCT better explains the intricacies of IS outsourcing arrangements. In conclusion, future research directions and managerial implications of the institutional environment on IS outsourcing governance are discussed

ORGANIZATIONAL CYNICISM.

What is the nature of the extremely negative attitudes expressed by so many employees toward their organizations? To respond to this question, we introduce the concept of organizational cynicism. We review the literature from several disciplines on this concept and suggest that organizational cynicism is an attitude composed of beliefs, affect, and behavioral tendencies toward an organization. Following our review and conceptualization, we derive implications of this concept and propose a research agenda for organizational cynicis

On the inadequacy of environment impact assessments for projects in Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park of Goa, India : a peer review

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is a regulatory framework adopted since 1994 in India to evaluate the impact and mitigation measures of projects, however, even after 25 years of adoption, EIAs continue to be of inferior quality with respect to biodiversity documentation and assessment of impacts and their mitigation measures. This questions the credibility of the exercise, as deficient EIAs are habitually used as a basis for project clearances in ecologically sensitive and irreplaceable regions. The authors reiterate this point by analysing impact assessment documents for three projects: the doubling of the National Highway-4A, doubling of the railway-line from Castlerock to Kulem, and laying of a 400-kV transmission line through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in the state of Goa. Two of these projects were recently granted ‘Wildlife Clearance’ during a virtual meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) without a thorough assessment of the project impacts. Assessment reports for the road and railway expansion were found to be deficient on multiple fronts regarding biodiversity assessment and projected impacts, whereas no impact assessment report was available in the public domain for the 400-kV transmission line project. This paper highlights the biodiversity significance of this protected area complex in the Western Ghats, and highlights the lacunae in biodiversity documentation and inadequacy of mitigation measures in assessment documents for all three diversion projects. The EIA process needs to improve substantially if India is to protect its natural resources and adhere to environmental protection policies and regulations nationally and globally

Japanese career progress: an empirical examination

This article investigates managerial career progress in a major Japanese multinational corporation over a 23-year period. We contrast our one-stage model of career progress, in which early career experiences can predict long-term career progress, with the well-accepted two-stage model of career progress, in which performance at the end of the first stage determines long-term career progress. In addition, we compare the predictions of our early screening model with those of the tournament model. Our early screening model is as good as or better than the other models in isolation or combination. Overall, we provide preliminary evidence that career progress in Japanese organizations during the high growth period of the 1970s and 1980s was perhaps more complex than shown by the two-stage career progress model that has enjoyed widespread acceptance. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 148–161. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400175