Article ID: | iaor20081977 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 42 |
Issue: | 4 |
Start Page Number: | 2107 |
End Page Number: | 2125 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2007 |
Journal: | Decision Support Systems |
Authors: | Rao H. Raghav, Nam Kichan, Kishore Rajiv, Goo Jahyun, Song Yongil |
Past studies in the IT outsourcing area have examined the management of IT outsourcing relationships from a variety of perspectives. The present paper extends this line of research. In this study, we take a multi-theoretic perspective to explore factors that determine the duration of continuing IT outsourcing relationships between vendor and client firms. Five ex-ante and two ex-post factors that may influence relationship duration were examined in this study. Data for this study were collected using a nationwide survey. To investigate the dynamics of continuing outsourcing relationships through repetitive contracts, we performed survival analysis using an accelerated failure-time (AFT) model. Four factors are found to have a significant relationship with relationship duration as hypothesized. However, three factors, of which two are ex-post factors, are found to not have a significant impact on outsourcing relationship duration. Implications and contributions of the study are discussed.