Interparty Social Dynamics in the IT Service Level Agreement Negotiation Process: A Preliminary Assessment of Competing Theories

In response to the global economic crisis, organizations are cutting costs and focusing on core competencies. One natural corollary of this situation has been an increased interest in the outsourcing of IT services. Such sourcing relationships are established and maintained via formally negotiated IT service level agreements (SLAs), the goal of which is to generate utility for both parties. Understanding the processes that produce successful IT SLA negotiation outcomes is thus of critical importance. While several well-established social theories seem germane to IT service level agreement negotiations, the predictions of those theories are not entirely compatible and consistent. This paper therefore develops and tests several preliminary research propositions in an effort to assess the applicability of these competing theories to the IT SLA negotiation process.