اثرات اعتماد اولیه و مداوم در برون سپاری فناوری اطلاعات (IT) : دیدگاه دو طرفه

Much has been written about the need for trust in outsourcing relationships, but the literature has produced only a few theoretical models that explain the process that helps it evolve. We proposed a theoretical model by distinguishing ongoing beliefs, such as ongoing trust and distrust, from initial perceptions, such as initial trust and distrust, in the context of IT outsourcing, and then explored empirically how these interacted with one another the knowledge sharing experience between the participants, thus leading to a successful experience from both the outsourcer and the service provider. The model and its hypotheses were tested using two-stage survey data collected from IT outsourcing projects. Our results showed that the ongoing trust and distrust between the receiver and provider were crucial in attaining benefits and that the outcome was also affected by the perceptions of the participants at the initial stage of the outsourcing process. We also found that knowledge-sharing experience between the parties moderated the impact of initial trust or distrust on the ongoing trust or distrust in different ways: the change in the service provider's initial perceptions were apparently more visible and positive than those of the service receiver's, although both initial perceptions tended to be cognitively consistent. These results helped us understand how trust evolves over time in an outsourcing relationship, and enabled us to explore the different viewpoints of the service provider and receiver.

Outsourcing has been heavily discussed in the past two decades. According to an IDC report, the global outsourcing market reached US$340 billion in 2007, and it is expected to increase to US$509 billion by 2012, with an annual growth rate of 8.4%. Given such growth, IT outsourcing warrants attention. However, there have been few reports about its successful ROI. Thus, the major issue facing both service providers and client organizations is the pressure to exhibit its value. Therefore, the best way to meet this challenge is to further improve the quality of the relationship of the service providers and the client organizations based on trust [1]. Because today's outsourcing contracts are often very complex, it is difficult to include all rules and agreements in the contract. Furthermore, interactions between the participants often go beyond rules and exceptions: they depend on intangible factors that cannot be easily captured in a contract, such as trust, commitment, and interdependency. As increasing attention has been focused on building a flexible relationship between the participants; thus trust has become a core need for successful outsourcing. Trust is important from the start to the final stages of outsourcing. But though interest in trust has been noted, the outsourcing literature has produced only a few theoretical models to support our understanding of the evolution of trust, the role of trust, and the consequence of trust in the relationship. Also, prior studies generally used cross-sectional surveys when studying the change in trust over time; these do not show trust evolves. Moreover, only limited research has addressed the outsourcing relationship from the perspectives of both participants. However, an understanding of both parties is important because a successful outcome is determined by both organizations [17].

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study to conceptualize and empirically validate the change in trust over time and its impact on outsourcing success. Our study also contributed by classifying initial perception into initial trust and initial distrust and ongoing belief into ongoing trust and ongoing distrust as emergent constructs leading to successful outsourcing. Moreover, our study focused on the bilateral perspectives of the service provider and receiver and adopted a two-stage methodological approach. This provided a deeper insight that helped reveal the degree of asymmetry of initial trust/distrust and ongoing trust/distrust as well as knowledge sharing between the parties in an outsourcing project. Understanding such asymmetries could minimize conflict and avoid the eventual termination of relationship, thereby leading to more successful outsourcing. The two-stage approach allowed us to examine not only the initial perceptions and ongoing beliefs but also the changes that take place from early to later stages of the outsourcing relationship.