Abstract
During the recent decades, some academic research on the subject of information technology outsourcing (ITO) decision has appeared in different outlets, which may impede the use of such resources and as a result, repetition of research by various researchers is very likely. The purpose of this paper is then to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) pertaining to research on ITO decision. Then, this review intends to 1) classify ITO decision literature, 2) provide a list of factors affecting ITO decision, and 3) identify ITO strategies. To this end, 91 ITO articles published between 2000 and 2018 in 51 unique journals were reviewed. The results yielded three kinds of descriptive, relational, and comparative ITO decision studies. The determinants of ITO decisions are classified into technological, organizational, environmental and user adoption factors. Furthermore, the trend of studied ITO strategies in the reviewed literature is analyzed, and future sourcing varietals are proposed. Finally, some insights and future research directions are proposed based on the review results.
Highlights
Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is defined as handing over to a third party, management of IT assets, resources, and activities for a required result
The authors showed that most determinant factors of sourcing decisions in the ITO context remain valid for the Cloud computing (CC) context
Based on the quantitative results, conducting comparative studies with a more focus on context, service/process type or strategic nature, ITO level, public/ private type of the client company, and ITO strategy are proposed as future research directions
Summary
Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is defined as handing over to a third party, management of IT assets, resources, and activities for a required result. The question of “what” to outsource investigates to what degree firms can outsource their strategic or core competence IT services to external vendors and which sourcing strategy best suits a firm. To understand the outsourcing phenomenon and the strategic changes in the companies comprehensively, one has to be aware of “how” outsourcing is done, that is, the process of outsourcing (Hätönen & Eriksson, 2009). To answer these questions, scholars have investigated different aspects of ITO decision.
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