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The effective promotion of informal control in information systems offshoring projects

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

As firms increasingly engage in interorganizational information systems (IS) projects, including IS offshoring projects, the challenge for client firms of effectively exercising control across organizational boundaries becomes critical. Although the importance of informal controls (clan and self-control) in this context has been recognized, prior research has focused primarily on formal controls. Consequently, our understanding of the use of clan and self-control in interorganizational IS projects is scarce, and partly inconsistent or contradictory. This study focuses the client’s role in promoting informal controls in interorganizational projects involving distant client–vendor relationships as well as the effectiveness of such controls. We use matched-pair survey data from 86 IS offshoring projects involving client and vendor relationship managers. Our results show an interesting pattern: while clan control is considerably more difficult to promote than self-control in client–vendor project relationships, only clan control has a direct positive impact on project performance. Moreover, formal control modes, national cultural values, and project context factors moderate both the promotion and the effectiveness of informal controls. Our study’s main contributions lie in establishing the relevance of the distinction between informal control given and received, and the importance of the client’s role in promoting informal controls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Information Systems, Nuremberg, Germany

    Martin Wiener & Jakob Heumann

  2. University of Innsbruck, Information Systems, Innsbruck, Austria

    Ulrich Remus

  3. Stockholm School of Economics, Management and Organization, Stockholm, Sweden

    Martin Wiener & Magnus Mähring

Authors
  1. Martin Wiener
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  2. Ulrich Remus
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  3. Jakob Heumann
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  4. Magnus Mähring
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Wiener.

Appendices

Appendix A

Independent and dependent variables: constructs and items

Table A1

Table A1 Construct operationalization
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Appendix B

Independent and dependent variables: construct cross-loadings

Table A2

Table A2 Construct cross-loadings
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Appendix C

Moderator variables: constructs and items

Table A3

Table A3 Construct operationalization
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Wiener, M., Remus, U., Heumann, J. et al. The effective promotion of informal control in information systems offshoring projects. Eur J Inf Syst 24, 569–587 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.16

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