Beyond Opportunism: A Resource-Based View of Outsourcing Risk

To date, IT outsourcing research has focused on applied problems and case studies. Two bodies of theory offer useful and needed perspectives on both the risks and the factors or variables which affect the risk of outsourcing IT. Transaction cost economics provides a thorough description of the conditions under which the risks of opportunism and inflated transaction costs are high. The Resource-based view of competitive strategy proposes variables that affect outsourcing hazards even when opportunism can be ruled out. The resource-based view is consequently particularly helpful in the examination of outsourcing contracts described as partnerships.