Marketing

Engineering

Philosophy

Extant taxon

Biology

Transaction cost

Statistics

Microeconomics

Information system

Operating system

Economics

Computer science

Outsourcing

Business

Evolutionary biology

Empirical research

Normative model of decision-making

Operations research

Database

Mathematics

Political science

Normative

Epistemology

Operations management

Industrial organization

Database transaction

Finance

Knowledge management

Engineering management

Information technology

Electrical engineering

The Journal of Strategic Information Systems

Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) has been widely used in information technology outsourcing (ITO) research to explain and predict outsourcing decisions and outsourcing-related outcomes. This research, however, has led to mixed and unexpected results in terms of the effects of transaction attributes on outsourcing decisions and outcomes. This study assesses the empirical literature employing TCT-based ITO models in terms of its faithfulness to the precepts of TCT, and argues that one possible explanation for the mixed results is that the extant models do not capture all the essential elements of TCT. First, there are core TCT constructs that the extant models do not take into account; second, the linkages among constructs that the IT outsourcing models have hypothesized are not always in line with TCT precepts; and third, the normative nature of the theory is not always captured by the extant models. This paper, therefore, aims to provide one possible answer to the question: "Why have the appropriations made of TCT to study IT outsourcing produced mixed results?"

An assessment of the use of Transaction Cost Theory in information technology outsourcing