Table Of ContentLecture Notes
in Business Information Processing 60
SeriesEditors
WilvanderAalst
EindhovenTechnicalUniversity,TheNetherlands
JohnMylopoulos
UniversityofTrento,Italy
MichaelRosemann
QueenslandUniversityofTechnology,Brisbane,Qld,Australia
MichaelJ.Shaw
UniversityofIllinois,Urbana-Champaign,IL,USA
ClemensSzyperski
MicrosoftResearch,Redmond,WA,USA
Karlheinz Kautz Peter Axel Nielsen (Eds.)
Scandinavian
Information Systems
Research
First Scandinavian Conference
on Information Systems, SCIS 2010
Rebild, Denmark,August 20-22, 2010
Proceedings
1 3
VolumeEditors
KarlheinzKautz
CopenhagenBusinessSchool
DepartmentofInformatics
Howitzvej60,2000Frederiksberg,Denmark
E-mail:[email protected]
PeterAxelNielsen
AalborgUniversity
DepartmentofComputerScience
SelmaLagerlöfsVej300,9220Aalborg,Denmark
E-mail:[email protected]
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010931632
ACMComputingClassification(1998):J.1,H.4.1,H.3.5,K.6,D.2
ISSN 1865-1348
ISBN-10 3-642-14873-5SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
ISBN-13 978-3-642-14873-6SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
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Preface
The First Scandinavian Conference on Information Systems (SCIS 2010) took place
during August 20–22, 2010 in Rebild, Denmark. The conference was held in
conjunction with the traditional IRIS seminar for information systems research in
Scandinavia. The IRIS seminar has a long-standing recognition for furthering
information systems research. The objective of SCIS 2010 was to extend and
formalize a part of the seminar to a full conference. The purpose of the conference
was to exchange and publish high-quality research with a particular view on the
Scandinavian research community.
The theme of the conference was “Engaged Scandinavian Information Systems
Research.” Scandinavian information systems research has for several decades been
concerned with its relevance for practitioners of the field, for users, for industry, and
for society at large. This concern for the usefulness outside the realms of research has
shaped the Scandinavian researchers’ awareness, attention, research conduct, and
most importantly a focus on who we interact with on which issues, why we do this,
and for whom we do it.
In his book Engaged Scholarship published in 2007, Van de Ven offered an
enlightening view on organizational and social research that is highly relevant for
Scandinavian information systems research. He suggests an interactional view in
which professional and research practices contribute to each other through different
types of activity. Embracing qualitative as well as quantitative methods and
promoting process studies as well as variance studies, engaged scholarship offers
opportunities to transcend the traditional dichotomies of rigor versus relevance, and
positivist versus interpretive research. Van de Ven defined “engaged scholarship” as
“a participative form of research for obtaining the different perspectives of key
stakeholders (researchers, users, clients, sponsors, and practitioners) in studying
complex problems.” Much of the Scandinavian information systems research already
followed this line of thinking as can be seen in a retrospective analysis which was
presented in the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 2. The
conference addressed and further promoted a view on Scandinavian information
systems research with a particular focus on how “engaged” unfolds in different
studies.
Altogether, a set of 10 scientific papers illustrating the conference theme was
presented in a single track. A large Program Committee consisting of researchers
from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark as well as the USA and Australia carefully
evaluated all submitted papers. Each submission was reviewed by three Program
Committee members. Only the very best quality papers were selected, resulting in an
acceptance rate of 25%.
VI Preface
During the conference we hosted three keynote speakers engaged in Scandinavian
information systems research: Brian Fitzgerald, University of Limerick, Ireland; Jan
Pries-Heje, Roskilde University, Denmark; and Suprateek Sarker, Copenhagen
Business School, Denmark.
August 2010 Karlheinz Kautz
Peter Axel Nielsen
Organization
Program Co-chairs
Karlheinz Kautz Denmark
Peter Axel Nielsen Denmark
Program Committee
Kim Normann Andersen Denmark
Karin Axelsson Sweden
Jørgen Bansler Denmark
Tone Bratteteig Norway
Keld Bødker Denmark
Susanne Bødker Denmark
Jan Damsgaard Denmark
Ole Hanseth Norway
Liisa von Hellens Australia
Ola Henfridsson Sweden
Jonny Holmström Sweden
Pertti Järvinen Finland
Rikard Lindgren Sweden
Kalle Lyytinen USA
Lars Mathiassen USA
Eric Monteiro Norway
Bjørn Erik Munkvold Norway
Markku Nurminen Finland
Helena Holmström Olsson Sweden
Samuli Pekkola Finland
Matti Rossi Finland
Maung K. Sein Norway
Jesper Simonsen Denmark
Erik Stolterman USA
Reima Suomi Finland
Carsten Sørensen UK
Virpi Tuunainen Finland
Margunn Aaenestad Norway
Pär Ågerfalk Sweden
VIII Organization
Organizing Committee
Hanne Westh Nicolajsen Aalborg University, Denmark
Lise Heeager Aalborg University, Denmark
John Persson Aalborg University, Denmark
Gitte Tjørnehøj Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Table of Contents
Relationship Management at the Operational Level in Outsourcing..... 1
Sabine Madsen and Keld Bødker
User Experience: Consumer Understandings of Virtual Product
Prototypes ...................................................... 18
Taina Kaapu and Tarja Tiainen
The Living Requirements Space: Towards the Collaborative
Development of Requirements for Future ERP Systems ............... 34
Femi Adisa, Petra Schubert, and Frantisek Sudzina
ITGovernancethroughRegulatoryModalities.HealthCareInformation
Infrastructure and the “Blue Fox” Project .......................... 50
Bendik Bygstad and Ole Hanseth
Boundaries between Participants in Outsourced Requirements
Construction .................................................... 65
Sari T. Salmela and Anna-Liisa Syrja¨nen
Is Standard Software Wiping Out Socio-Technical Design? - Engaging
in the Practice of Implementing Standard ERP Systems .............. 79
Lene Pries-Heje
Facing the Lernaean Hydra: The Nature of Large-Scale Integration
Projects in Healthcare............................................ 93
Eli Larsen and Gunnar Ellingsen
Bootstrapping Revisited: Opening the Black Box of Organizational
Implementation.................................................. 111
Espen Skorve and Margunn Aanestad
Configuration Analysis of Inter-Organizational Information Systems
Adoption ....................................................... 127
Kalle Lyytinen and Jan Damsgaard
An Analysis of Literature Reviews on IS Business Value: How
Deficiencies in Methodology and Theory Use Resulted in Limited
Effectiveness .................................................... 139
Guido Schryen
Author Index.................................................. 157
Relationship Management at the Operational Level in
Outsourcing
Sabine Madsen and Keld Bødker
Roskilde University, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies,
Universitetsvej 1, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
{sabinem,keldb}@ruc.dk
Abstract. Research suggests that achievement of a successful outsourcing
relationship requires a tremendous amount of detailed management. In this
paper we draw on relationship theory to understand the management practices
of a particular outsourcing setup. An empirical study of a Danish company
operating an offshore development centre with 400 employees located in India
identified a host of practices that form a seemingly complex and ambiguous
picture. To make sense of the studied practice we develop a framework that
consists of four relationship management strategies coined select-a-friend,
develop-a-friend, control-a-person, and control-of-output. We provide
illustrative examples of each strategy; reflect upon the alignment between the
type of outsourcing setup and the identified portfolio of practices; and outline
theoretical and practical implications. Key findings are that all four strategies
are used, play an important role and that continuous improvement of the
portfolio of relationship management practices is paramount to ensure
effectiveness.
Keywords: Offshore outsourcing, relationship management, engaged research.
1 Introduction
Outsourcing is defined “as the handing over of assets, resources, activities and/or
people to third party management to achieve agreed performance outcomes” (Lacity
& Willcocks, 2006, p. 1). Outsourcing has been on the research agenda since the early
1990’s and the literature on the topic is abundant. The extant literature has, e.g.,
addressed the contract management that is required when the service provider is
completely in charge of a significant piece of work, i.e. when total outsourcing has
been chosen (Dibbern et al., 2004). Moreover, a lot of research has looked at how to
conduct project management when activities are jointly performed by an on- or
offshore service provider and the client company, i.e. when a cooperative outsourcing
strategy has been implemented (Dibbern et al., 2004). The term, onshore, refers to
outsourced activities that are performed in the same country as the client company;
offshore refers to outsourced work that is carried out in another country, and often at
low-cost destinations such as India, China, and Russia; while the term, onsite, denotes
the location of the client company’s main operation (Holmström et al., 2008).
K. Kautz and P.A. Nielsen (Eds.): SCIS 2010, LNBIP 60, pp. 1–17, 2010.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
2 S. Madsen and K. Bødker
Despite the much literature that offers normative guidelines on how to perform
outsourcing in practice, achieving success at the operational level remains a challenge
(Willcocks & Lacity, 2006). This is, among other reasons, because it takes a
tremendous amount of detailed management to ensure a successful outsourcing
relationship (Lacity & Willcocks, 2006; Rustagi et al., 2008). Prior research suggests
that managing the outsourcing effort on a daily basis represents the largest category of
hidden costs, which however can be reduced by gaining practical experience with
outsourcing and by cultivating a trust-based client-provider relationship as an antidote
to opportunism (Barthélemy, 2001). There is increasing recognition of the importance
of the client-provider relationship, but there is still a relative lack of empirical
research on the topic (Holmström et al., 2008). And in general, the practicalities and
required relationship management, particularly with regard to a cooperative, offshore
outsourcing setup, are not yet well understood (Beck et al., 2008; King & Torkzadeh,
2008).
In this paper, we report from a case study of a specific company’s chosen
outsourcing strategy and its practical and managerial implications at the operational
level. The case company is a major Danish organization (hereafter referred to as the
CaseCompany) that has 3 years of operational experience with a cooperative
outsourcing strategy implemented as an ‘Offshore Development Center’ (ODC) in
India. The chosen strategy is such that approx. 400 Indians employed by an Indian
service provider are ‘hired’ from the Indian company into the ODC. The Indians are
considered a pool of resources to be allocated to IT development projects and/or
system management areas (i.e. maintenance), just like other IT employees in the
CaseCompany. The contract with the Indian service provider concerns the timely
delivery of skilled personnel and billable hours rather than IT products or services.
This outsourcing strategy has been chosen to ensure access to a cost-saving and
scalable work force. 70% of the ODC resources are allocated to system management,
while the remaining 30% work on development projects. Moreover, many ODC re-
sources are allocated to tasks onsite, i.e. in Denmark; at any given time approx. 20-
25% of the ODC resources are onsite. Another characteristic of the chosen
outsourcing strategy is that five Danes are posted in India to oversee the daily
operations.
Using the above company as our case we ask: which practicalities and relationship
management practices are key for ensuring the effectiveness of a cooperative,
offshore outsourcing setup at the operational, day-to-day level?
2 Research Approach
To answer the research question we present a practice study (Mathiassen, 2002)
conducted for the purpose of understanding a particular cooperative, offshore
outsourcing setup at the operational level. As we investigate offshore outsourcing in
its natural surroundings, and as there still is a paucity of theory about this
phenomenon, an in-depth case study has been conducted (Walsham, 1993; Yin,
2003). For interpreting our qualitative case study data we have gone through several
rounds of analyses, and we have shared our empirical findings and theory-inspired
conceptualizations with relevant stakeholders on an on-going basis. This explorative
