Paper Info
Title
Hybrid Relational-Contractual Governance for Business Process Outsourcing
Abstract
We examined 335 business process outsourcing BPO ventures to understand the effect of contractual and relational governance factors on BPO satisfaction from the client's perspective. While both contractual and relational factors explain significant variance in BPO satisfaction, relational factors dominate. By examining interactions between key contractual and relational mechanisms, we found that elements of the two governance approaches operate as substitutes with respect to BPO satisfaction. Specifically, the relational mechanism, trust, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations, goal expectations, and contractual flexibility. Similarly, the relational mechanism, information exchange, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations and goal expectations. Finally, the relational mechanism, conflict resolution, was found to substitute for contractually specified goal expectations. Our results can be applied to more effectively realize controls in outsourcing contexts and to design governance systems that integrate contractual and relational governance mechanisms based on the characteristics of client-vendor relationships.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.2753/MIS0742-1222290208
J. of Management Information Systems
Keywords
DocType
Volume
governance approach,goal expectation,relational factor,BPO venture,relational governance mechanism,Business Process Outsourcing,contractually specified activity expectation,relational mechanism,contractual flexibility,BPO satisfaction,relational governance factor,Hybrid Relational-Contractual Governance
Journal
29
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2
0742-1222
19
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.64
44
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Arun Rai1242380.52
Mark Keil21338106.52
Rob Hornyak3271.86
Kim Wüllenweber4463.74