Relativism in the Cloud: Cloud Sourcing in virtue of IS Development Outsourcing - A literature review

Nowadays Cloud Computing and Cloud Sourcing is on the agenda in many organizations. Many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) that urge for alternatives to traditional outsourcing are interested in how they can take advantage from Cloud Computing, by sourcing Information Technology (IT) from the cloud. This paper provides an overview of the research direction of Cloud Sourcing in the IS field. A literature review based on selected papers from top Information Systems (IS) journals and conferences were conducted. Findings from the review indicate that the attention of Cloud Sourcing in IS literature has mainly been directed towards security and risk as well as adoption issues, and that Cloud Sourcing is claimed to be the next generation of outsourcing. Unfortunately, this is where this strong claim ends without any further evidence, which indicate that there is a need for more research on Cloud Sourcing, especially in the direction of investigating relationships and implications when organizations start using Cloud Sourcing

Cloud Sourcing – Next Generation Outsourcing?

Although Cloud Sourcing has been around for some time it could be questioned what actually is known about it. This paper presents a literature review on the specific question if Cloud Sourcing could be seen as the next generation of outsourcing. The reason for doing this is that from an initial sourcing study we found that the sourcing decisions seems to go in the direction of outsourcing as a service which could be described as Cloud Sourcing. Whereas some are convinced that Cloud Sourcing reduces cost and complexity in advantage for increased labor productivity, others maintain that the negotiation with the cloud provider is crucial to ensure data privacy, security regulations, compliance, standards, tolerance for risk, governance and service level agreements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the debate on Cloud Sourcing in the top IS conferences and AIS basket of 8 journals goes in the direction of Cloud Sourcing being the future of sourcing as practice predicts, and to identify the space for the development of this research. An introductory literature review showed that there is not much written about Cloud Sourcing as an alternative for outsourcing albeit it seems to have a great potential

Sourcing motives behind sourcing decisions exposed through the Sourcing Decision Framework

There is no doubt that information systems (IS) are the backbone of today’s organizations. Having an initial inspection on sourcing motives in the financial sector it can be stated that resources used in development of information systems (IS) are seen as an important factor for sustained competitive advantage. However, it can be claimed that it depends to a high extent on the application of different sourcing modes. This leads us to a closer inspection on sourcing motives through selected case studies and the following research question: How can motives for sourcing options of IS-development be explained? The empirical investigation on sourcing decisions and the motives behind, in addition to a literature review on sourcing decisions and sourcing options ends in four propositions. These propositions are then used in tandem with the findings from the empirical data for initial development of the Sourcing Decision Framework (SDF). Ultimately, what is at stake here is our framework (SDF) that from the initial development and the first test has shown to be purposive and could be further developed to a useful framework for analyzing sourcing decisions and as a guiding tool for decision-makers when deciding on sourcing options for IS-development

Relativism in the Cloud: Cloud Sourcing in virtue of IS Development Outsourcing - A literature review

Nowadays Cloud Computing and Cloud Sourcing is on the agenda in many organizations. Many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) that urge for alternatives to traditional outsourcing are interested in how they can take advantage from Cloud Computing, by sourcing Information Technology (IT) from the cloud. This paper provides an overview of the research direction of Cloud Sourcing in the IS field. A literature review based on selected papers from top Information Systems (IS) journals and conferences were conducted. Findings from the review indicate that the attention of Cloud Sourcing in IS literature has mainly been directed towards security and risk as well as adoption issues, and that Cloud Sourcing is claimed to be the next generation of outsourcing. Unfortunately, this is where this strong claim ends without any further evidence, which indicate that there is a need for more research on Cloud Sourcing, especially in the direction of investigating relationships and implications when organizations start using Cloud Sourcing

Sourcing Strategies in Information Systems Development

Abstract After 20 years of accomplishment Barney discusses in the recent issue of the Journal of Management (JOM, September 2011, 37(4)) the decline or the revitalization of the resource based view (RBV). This thesis gives support for its relevance in the field of sourcing IS- development. Looking into the discipline of IS-sourcing, at first glance it might be seen as a natural part as any other of an organization. However, taking a closer inspection on sourcing in the financial sector we have found that the resources used in IS-development are an important factor for sustained competitive advantage depending on the application of different sourcing modes. Investigating several case organizations from the financial sector we have on the basis of the resource based view analyzed selected IS-sourcing projects and the motive for sourcing as well as if appropriate sourcing strategies are applied. With the starting point from Roy and Aubert’s (2000) research and implications on their treatment of IS-sourcing modes, we challenge their study in a way that we are convinced that it needs to be combined with the VRIO framework. Our empirical results confirm that the VRIO framework sheds insight on the diffusion of finding the applied sourcing mode. While analyzing the empirical findings and using the well- grounded theories with the stake from the resource based view, we have theoretically derived the appropriate IS-sourcing mode for each investigated case. The empirical findings revealed that the IS-sourcing model is implicitly applied in practice. However, the extrapolation from the application of the theoretically derived sourcing mode to the success of the sourcing project needs further evidence. Our discussion of IS-sourcing in the financial sector addresses in fact the importance of seeing IS-sourcing as a resource that includes capabilities of high or low strategic value, for gaining sustained competitive advantage. Metaphorically sourcing of IS-development can be seen as a bag that holds resources which form the competitive advantage. Although IS- sourcing strategies from the RBV perspective may seem of concern to only a small group of interest, it should in fact concern any financial organization that cares about keeping competitive on the market. Regarding the empirical findings, this discovery has relevant applications in Roy and Aubert’s (2000) research and contribute to the resource based view

Interaction Design Can Be Replaced By Marketing

Abstract Interaction Design and Marketing are two disciplines originating from two different sources and studied at different departments. Yet when looking deeper into the two disciplines to my surprise and to the fact that these two disciplines have not previously been addressed in this way, it reveals that they are very similar, and in many aspects equivalent. This study compares Interaction Design and Marketing highlighting their similarities and differences with the help of the main literature used in the two fields. The analysis demonstrates the fact that Marketing does cover almost everything of the Interaction Design discipline and even more than that. The only aspect of Interaction Design found to not be covered by Marketing is the specific knowledge of technology and human computer interaction design, which implies that Interaction Design is not as superfluous as it might appear at a first glance. This has opened up for future questions to be answered regarding if Interaction Design can be replaced by Marketing having factors change

Transition to Cloud Sourcing - Innovation and Competitive Advantage

Looking into the topic of cloud sourcing, at first glance it might be seen as an off the shelf pay per use service that is easy and fast to adopt for most companies. Although in practice not all companies succeed with cloud sourcing. Previous research shows that cloud sourcing entails risks especially in the adoption phase in terms of security, trust, data loss, and transparency among others. The challenges faced by cloud customers and in specific larger companies are extensive; and can be all but cost effective. Companies that decide to cloud source need to understand that it is not only a service delivery model, but also perhaps a long term business relationship that can offer benefits beyond the cloud basics (scalability, cost reduction, flexibility). To address these complex challenges, more research is necessary on the barriers to cloud sourcing, capabilities to overcome these barriers and stay in the cloud successfully. The research purpose is to investigate cloud sourcing from the firm client perspective, more specifically the transitioning process from traditional IT outsourcing to cloud sourcing, i.e., the barriers to continuance of cloud sourcing, how cloud sourcing triggers innovation capabilities and its implications for competitive advantage. This is done in order to contribute to the business and management research knowledge of cloud sourcing. The research is qualitative including interviews, observations and text analysis, based on three studies and reported in five appended papers. The first study is a state-of-art literature review on cloud sourcing phenomenon. Subsequent studies were based on empirical investigations. The second study identified sourcing motives behind sourcing decisions based on a pilot study. The third study expanded those findings through two case studies with cloud customer companies and other cloud partners involved in cloud sourcing relationships. The cloud continuance process is argued to be a stage-based model enabling different types of innovations implicating various levels of competitive advantage, e.g., depending on how the cloud customer together with the other partners in cloud sourcing manages to develop the business relationship development process. Findings in this research suggest that dynamic capabilities in different forms can sense, seize and transform cloud sourcing into innovations and affect competitive advantage in the long run through new business models, market expansion, and new services. From a practical perspective the research can inform managers about common implementation problems when transitioning to cloud sourcing, and help them prepare for this process

Användning av IT i en liten organisation

IT-användning i småföretag och organisationer skiljer sig från IT-användning i större företag. I småföretag och organisationer finns det unika problem som påverkar införandet av nya IT-lösningar negativt. Studier om småföretag och organisationers användning av IT och vilka problem som uppstår i detta samband är få. I den här uppsatsen har intervjuer från en fallorganisation utgjort grunden för att analysera och skapa en bättre förståelse för de teoretiska utgångspunkterna och det studerade fenomenet, genom att förankra teorin i empirin. Uppsatsen utgår från en fallstudiemetodik. Vår studie visar att det i många avseenden finns en stark koppling mellan teori och empiri men också tydliga kontraster, där vi finner orsaken till många problem för småföretag och organisationer vid bruk av IT. Slutsatsen baseras på de utmärkande hinder som vi har funnit i småföretag och organisationer i samband med adoptering av nya IT-lösningar, men också kontradiktoriska upptäckter där vår empiri utmanas genom teorin. Teorin stämmer inte alltid överens med den verklighet som vår fallorganisation respresenterar

Explaining Sourcing Motives from Sourcing Decisions: The Sourcing Motive Framework

AbstractIt can definitely be said that information systems (IS) are of high importance in organizations today. However, the question is how this influences organizations when deciding on a specific sourcing option for IS-development. In other words what influence has availability of resources as well as the strategic value of such resources when deciding whether IS-development should be outsourced or not. To say something about this an investigation of sourcing motives is needed, which directs to the specific research question that is: How can motives for sourcing options of IS-development be explained? From an investigation of sourcing decisions in four banks we analyse their sourcing motives. The result from this investigation, and an additional literature review on sourcing decisions and sourcing options, ends in four propositions. These propositions are used in tandem with findings from the empirical data for initial development of the sourcing motive framework (SMF). The main contribution from the research is the framework (SMF) that from the initial development and the first test is seen as a fruitful framework which could be further developed into both a useful framework for analysing sourcing decisions but also as a guiding tool for decision-makers when deciding on sourcing options for IS-development

Dynamic capabilities triggered by cloud sourcing: a stage‑based model of business model innovation

Current research offers very limited insights on the process of how the adoption and continued use of cloud sourcing might trigger and push the development of business model innovation and affect the competitive advantage of a firm. Applying an abductive approach, with two longitudinal case studies of cloud sourcing firms, and a theoretical framework based on stage-based models of business model innovation and the dynamic capability view of the firm, we develop a model of stage-based business model innovation related to the adoption and continued use of cloud sourcing. The model identifies three business model innovation stages characterized by specific types of capabilities. In between the three stages, we identify three dynamic junctures that the firm and its managers have to overcome to progress from one stage to another. In the dynamic junctures three types of dynamic capabilities were key; sensing, seizing and transformation capabilities, to pass to the next stage. The model contributes to a better understanding of the evolution of dynamic capabilities as well as the evolution of the cloud sourcing firm and cloud-based business model innovation