This study extends the view that formal contracts and relational governance function as complements rather than as substitutes. We investigate how specific characteristics of service level agreements (SLAs) impact relational governance in information technology outsourcing relationships. Eleven contractual elements (categorized into three SLA characteristics: foundation, change, and governance characteristics) are hypothesized to act as complements of three relational governance attributes: relational norms, harmonious conflict resolution, and mutual dependence. Data for the study were collected through a survey of South Korean IT executives. Results of the study support the fundamental proposition of complementarity between formal contracts and relational governance, and indicate that well-structured SLAs have significant positive influence on the various aspects of relational governance in IT outsourcing relationships. However, the study also reveals that change characteristics of SLAs may act as a substitute for relational governance as these characteristics were found to dampen the level of trust and commitment through moderation effects. Overall, the findings support the proposition that well-developed SLAs not only

Abstract:In this paper, we first provide a practical yet rigorous definition of crowdsourcing that incorporates "crowds," outsourcing, and social web technologies. We then analyze 103 well-known crowdsourcing websites using content analysis methods and the hermeneutic reading principle. Based on our analysis, we develop a "taxonomic theory" of crowdsourcing by organizing the empirical variants in nine distinct forms of crowdsourcing models. We also discuss key issues and directions, concentrating on the notion of managerial control systems. Keywords:Crowdsourcing; outsourcing; e-business; social web; social media; advanced Internet technologies; Web 2.0. † Gregory D. Saxton, Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, New York; Onook Oh, The Center for Collaboration Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE; Rajiv Kishore, Department of Management Science and Systems, School of Management, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. * The authors would like to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their valuable comments and suggestions. The reviewers and editors of the Fourth Global Sourcing Workshop (March 22-25, 2010, Zermatt, Switzerland) also provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Please direct correspondence to Gregory Saxton, Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, SUNY. Email: gdsaxton@buffalo.edu 2 Taking advantage of the growing acceptance of social web technologies 1 , entrepreneurs big and small are continually creating and experimenting with innovative sourcing models. One of the most buzzworthy models is "crowdsourcing," whereby businesses use the Web to harness the efforts of a virtual "crowd" to achieve specific organizational tasks. Crowdsourcing thus takes advantage of many of the same technological features that characterize "social media," the technology that enables online communities through which users can interact with those of similar interests. However, crowdsourcing is distinct from pure social media applications in that it not only actively involves a diverse crowd of users but actively controls the online community through sophisticated management schemes involving compensation, copyright protection, and the like. Simply put, while social media sites place emphasis on the social aspect of community, crowdsourcing involves the management of a community via Web-based collaborative technologies to elicit the community's knowledge and/or skill sets and thus fulfill a pre-identified business goal.In effect, despite its "buzzword" status, we argue there is an identifiable core to crowdsourcing, and that this important goal-oriented strategic micro-outsourcing model has received scant attention from academic audiences. This paper aims to correct this deficiency by developing an empirically grounded taxonomy of crowdsourcing models that can drive future research.The specific goals of this paper are as follows: First, because of the confusing state of academic and popular discussion of crowdsourcing,...

Research summary:We examine why a firm takes specific competitive action in nonmarket and resource-market spaces, particularly when it perceives threats from informal and foreign competitor groups, respectively. We address this question by combining insights from competitive rivalry, strategic groups, and nonmarket strategy literatures in an emerging economy context. Specifically, we theorize how threats from informal and foreign rival firms in an emerging market influence a firm's engagement in corruption activities and its investments in HR training, respectively. We also argue that the likelihoods of such focal firm actions against competitor group threats differ, contingent on the focal firm's market and resource profiles. Results from the empirical analyses, with survey data from the Indian IT industry, provide broad support to our hypotheses. Managerial summary: Based on a World Bank dataset on the Indian IT industry, this study finds that corruption and HR training are pursued by firms in emerging economies as mindful strategies against specific types of rivals-informal and foreign firm rivals, respectively, and are not pursued simply as culturally-based practices. Multinational companies may need to understand that domestic firms in emerging countries will engage in corruption strategically to reduce their costs and time to market of their products/services. Therefore, multinational firms may need to devise suitable strategies other than corruption to reduce their costs and time to market if they wish to compete with firms in emerging economies for customers who don't care about ethical issues and will buy a cheaper product/service that is delivered quickly. Copyright

A longitudinal study at four companies provides valuable insights about the evolution of IT outsourcing relationships.

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