Information Systems Outsourcing Reasons and Risks: Review and Evolution

ABSTRACT

The present article proposes a set of outsourcing reasons and risks—subsequently assessing them in the case of major Spanish companies through a survey that has been replicated twice. A questionnaire was administered to the Information Systems managers of the largest Spanish firms in order to achieve these aims. An analysis will be carried out to check if the proposed reasons and risks are valid for firms regardless of their size or their degree of outsourcing, later complemented with a study of the effect that time has on them, showing a 12-year evolution.

KEYWORDS:

• Information systems
• longitudinal
• outsourcing
• Spain
• survey

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for all their helpful suggestions.

Notes

¹ Correlation Matrix Determinant: 0.081.Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Index: 0.757.Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity: 922.440.Significance: 0.000.

² Correlation Matrix Determinant: 0.031.Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Index: 0.815.Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity: 1,281.439.Significance: 0.000.

³ Furthermore, performing this same analysis with three factors did not allow us to comply with Kaiser’s criterion, and the cumulative explained variance did not increase to a large extent (only up to 58.556%); hence, our decision to extract two factors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reyes González

Reyes González is a Senior Lecturer in Business Management and Information Systems at the University of Alicante. Her current research interests are information systems management, e-business, outsourcing processes and public administration management. She has published articles in several journals, e.g. Business Process Management Journal, Information Processing and Management, Information and Management, Information Technology and People, International Journal of Information Management, Information Management & Computer Security, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Journal of European Industrial Training, Logistics Information Management, Total Quality Management, and The International Journal of Educational Management.

Jose Gascó

Jose Gascó is a Professor of Business Organisation at the University of Alicante. His current research interests include human resources, information systems outsourcing and public administration management. He has published articles in several journals, namely, Revue Internationale PME, Direction et Gestion des Entreprises, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, The International Journal of Public Sector Management, Business Process Management Journal, Information Processing and Management, International Journal of Information Management, Information Management & Computer Security, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Total Quality Management, Journal of European Industrial Training, Information Technology and People, and Logistics Information Management.

Juan Llopis

Juan Llopis is Professor of Business Organization at the University of Alicante. Among his current research lines organizational culture, human resources, quality management, information systems management and public administration management stand out. He has published articles in journals such as Information and Management, Total Quality Management, Journal of High Technology Management Research, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Information Technology and People, Business Process Management Journal, Information Processing and Management, Journal of European Industrial Training, Logistics Information Management Journal, International Journal of Information Management, Information Management & Computer Security, Industrial Management & Data Systems, and International Journal of Value-based Management.