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Firm strategic profile and IT outsourcing

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Abstract

IT outsourcing research has often been at the transaction level, focusing on the role of the characteristics of the IT activities as the antecedents of outsourcing decisions. The present study extends past research efforts examining the relationships between organizational level variables—in particular the business strategy—and the decision to outsource. Results show that prospectors and analyzers are more aggressive in their use of outsourcing for IT operations. However, no differences between the behaviour of the different strategic groups were found for maintenance activities, suggesting that these activities are too far from the core of the organization to be influenced by strategic profile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HEC Montréal and CIRANO, 2020 University, 25th floor, Montréal, Canada, H3A 2A5

    Benoit A. Aubert

  2. SAP Canada, 380 St-Antoine West (suite 2000), Montréal, Canada, H2Y 3X7

    Guillaume Beaurivage

  3. John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montréal, Canada, H3G 1M8

    Anne-Marie Croteau

  4. HEC Montréal and CIRANO, 3000 chemin de la Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Canada, H3T 2A7

    Suzanne Rivard

Authors
  1. Benoit A. Aubert
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  2. Guillaume Beaurivage
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  3. Anne-Marie Croteau
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  4. Suzanne Rivard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benoit A. Aubert.

Additional information

This research was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Aubert, B.A., Beaurivage, G., Croteau, AM. et al. Firm strategic profile and IT outsourcing. Inf Syst Front 10, 129–143 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-008-9065-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-008-9065-8

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