Adaptability in IT Sourcing: The impact of Switching Costs Conference Paper

abstract

• IT sourcing decisions are increasingly becoming more strategic than in the past. As this occurs, firms should maintain a strategy of adaptability in order to mitigate the risks inherently associated with sourcing. A major influence on the adaptability of a firm in the short- and long-term are the switching costs associated with moving an activity from one source to another. As switching costs increase, firms may be "locked in" to one source. Firms should therefore work to decrease the switching costs so that they are more able to move an activity from one source to another if the market changes or an outsourcing relationship sours. Three strategies are presented for lowering switching costs which will ultimately help increase adaptability. 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

authors

• Whitten, G.

published proceedings

• GLOBAL SOURCING OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS PROCESSES

author list (cited authors)

• Whitten, D.

citation count

• 1

complete list of authors

• Whitten, Dwayne

publication date

• January 2010

publisher

• Springer Nature  Publisher

published in

• Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing  Journal

keywords

• Adaptability
• Agility
• Flexibility
• Outsourcing
• Sourcing
• Switching Costs

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1007/978-3-642-15417-1_11

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 10

• 3642154166

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 13

• 978-3-642-15416-4

start page

• 202

end page

• 216

volume

• 55

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15417-1_11