Fakultät Informatik und Mathematik
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- 2020 (3) (remove)
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Keywords
- Backsourcing (1)
- Betriebliches Informationssystem (1)
- Business-managed IT (1)
- Cultural distance (1)
- IT governance (1)
- IT outsourcing (1)
- IT-Service (1)
- IT-Sourcing (1)
- ITO Success (1)
- Informationsmanagement (1)
Begutachtungsstatus
- peer-reviewed (3)
PURPOSE
IT outsourcing (ITO) has developed into an established practice for organizations but the interorganizational and oftentimes international collaboration it involves comes at a price: Reports from academia and practice suggest that more than 25% of all ITO projects fail, many because of cultural differences between client and provider organizations. Against this background, this paper analyzes the complex nature of cultural distance and its multi-faceted effect on ITO success.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
This paper builds upon extant literature on culture on the national, organizational and team level, conceptualizes its effect on relationship quality and ITO success, and hypothesizes a model on potential moderators and management techniques to offset culture-induced challenges. It then evaluates and refines the model by means of an interpretive qualitative research design for an in-depth single-case study of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (P7S1), a leading European media company that reconfigured its IT sourcing model three times in 10 years.
FINDINGS
The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
This paper contributes relevant empirical insights to the growing body of literature on culture and its underestimated role in ITO success. It builds on tentative theory that is confirmed and refined.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The paper helps in substantiating the complex and intangible nature of culture and demonstrates means for its effective management.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success.
Shadow IT describes covert/hidden IT systems that are managed by business entities themselves. Additionally, there are also overt forms in practice, so-called Business-managed IT, which share most of the characteristics of Shadow IT. To better understand this phenomenon, we interviewed 29 executive IT managers about positive and negative cases of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. By applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we derived four conditions that characterize these cases: Aligned, local, simple, and volatile. The results show that there are three sufficient configurations of conditions that lead to a positive outcome; one of them even encompasses Shadow IT. The most important solution indicates that IT systems managed by business entities are viewed as being positive if they are aligned with the IT department and limited to local requirements. This allows to balance local responsiveness to changing requirements and global standardization. In contrast, IT systems that are not aligned and permanent (and either organization-wide or simple) are consistently considered as negative. Our study is the first empirical quantitative–qualitative study to shed light on the success and failure of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT.
IT-Backsourcing
(2020)
IT-Backsourcing bezeichnet die Re-Integration vormals outgesourcter IT-Services zurück zum auslagernden Unternehmen. Die vorliegende Studie stellt die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter IT-Managern zu Einflussfaktoren von IT-Backsourcing-Entscheidungen vor. Es lässt sich feststellen, dass IT-Backsourcing von Unternehmen in unterschiedlichen Branchen und für eine Vielzahl an unterschiedlichen IT-Services, wie z. B. Applikationsentwicklung oder Infrastruktur-Leistungen, durchgeführt wird. Hauptgründe für die Entscheidung für ein IT-Backsourcing sind mangelnde Qualität, hohe Kosten sowie eine schlechte Beziehung zum IT-Dienstleister. Die Ergebnisse der Umfrage zeigen, dass diejenigen Unternehmen, die sich für ein Backsourcing entschieden haben, nach der Entscheidung insgesamt zufriedener waren als diejenigen, die in einer Outsourcing-Beziehung geblieben sind. Zudem werden verschiedene Handlungsempfehlungen für IT-Manager aufgezeigt. Zur Ausarbeitung einer zukunftsorientieren IT-Sourcing-Strategie empfiehlt es sich, eine service-spezifische Sourcing-Strategie zu verfolgen und entsprechend spezialisierte Dienstleister einzusetzen. Im Falle einer Entscheidung für ein IT-Backsourcing sollten verschiedene Erfolgsfaktoren beachtetet werden, wie z. B. eine frühzeitige Neubesetzung von Schlüsselstellen sowie ein lückenloser Wissenstransfer.