The Concept of Governance in IT Outsourcing: A Literature Review

The significance of governance has been recognized in IT Outsourcing (ITO) research and practice. While the concept of governance is rooted from various reference disciplines, as a leading knowledge resource for outsourcing, the discipline of IS has contributed to the conceptualization of ITO governance with multiplex interpretations and from different aspects. To synthesize these contributions of IS scholars, we conducted a literature review within IS discipline, and identified two research strands: governance structure and governance mechanisms. With our findings, we describe how “structuring" the governance means defining the combination of an appropriate portfolio of governance structures, together with different coordination mechanisms at different stages of the ITO lifecycle. Furthermore, we discuss how the ITO research community can be informed by reference disciplines on the conceptualization of governance. On this basis, we suggest the existing gaps and future directions of research on ITO governance.