IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Enterprise Systems Outsourcing “Behind the Curtain”: A Case Study Showing How Rational and Institutional Explanations Coexist and Complement Each Other

Enterprise Systems Outsourcing “Behind the Curtain”: A Case Study Showing How Rational and Institutional Explanations Coexist and Complement Each Other
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Per Svejvig (Aarhus School of Business, Denmark)and Jan Pries-Heje (Roskilde University, Denmark)
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 18
Source title: Competition, Strategy, and Modern Enterprise Information Systems
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Madjid Tavana (La Salle University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2464-1.ch001

Purchase


Abstract

Outsourcing is now a feasible means for enterprise systems (ES) cost savings, but does however increase the complexity of coordination substantially when many organizations are involved. We set out to study ES outsourcing in a large Scandinavian high-tech organization, SCANDI, a case setting with many inter-organizational partners, trying to answer the question: Why does SCANDI engage in these very complex outsourcing arrangements? To answer this question we have analyzed documents, observed meetings and gathered data from interviews in four parts of SCANDI. The first data analysis found just the rational front stage cost-saving explanation; but then, with a more careful analysis focusing on institutional factors, other backstage explanations “behind the curtain” were uncovered, such as management consultants with a “best practice” agenda, people promoting outsourcing, thereby being promoted themselves, and a belief in outsourcing as a “silver bullet”: a recipe to success, solving everything.

Related Content

Margee Hume, Paul Johnston. © 2017. 19 pages.
Jessy Nair, D. Bhanu Sree Reddy. © 2017. 27 pages.
Joseph R. Muscatello, Diane H. Parente, Matthew Swinarski. © 2017. 19 pages.
Klaus Wölfel. © 2017. 33 pages.
Rui Pedro Marques. © 2017. 21 pages.
Ebru E. Saygili, Arikan Tarik Saygili. © 2017. 17 pages.
Aparna Raman, D. P. Goyal. © 2017. 41 pages.
Body Bottom