How PMBOK standard and partnership quality influence IT outsourcing success: An investigation of the mediated moderation effects

ABSTRACT

We develop a mediated moderation model to explain how project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) standard and partnership quality interactively affect the IT outsourcing success, and whether service quality mediates their joint effect on IT outsourcing success. Conducting a survey of 118 project managers in nine Iranian IT outsourcers, the model and hypothesis are empirically tested. We find a negative moderation effect between PMBOK standard and partnership quality, showing that partnership quality’s effect on IT outsourcing success becomes weak when the level of PMBOK standard is high. More interesting, we find that this moderation effect is fully mediated by service quality, which in turn directly increases IT outsourcing success. In addition, PMBOK standard is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service quality and IT outsourcing success. These findings shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying PMBOK standard, partnership quality, and service quality in IT outsourcing success, and provide several implications in theory and practice of IT outsourcing management.

KEYWORDS:

• IT outsourcing success
• mediated moderation model
• partnership quality
• PMBOK standard
• service quality

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71672019], [71271039], [71421001].

Notes on contributors

Jian-Jun Wang

Jian-Jun Wang is a Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at the Faculty of Management and Economics of Dalian University of Technology in China, and an adjunct research professor in the Business College of East Carolina University from 2012 to 2013. He completed his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. He received New Century Excellent Talents in University honored by Ministry of Education of China in 2013. His active research areas are IT outsourcing, e-commerce, and operations management. He has published about 30 papers in journals such as Information & Management, Computers in Human Behavior, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Information Science, Computers & Operations Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems and others. He has also presented several papers at AMCIS, CSWIM, ICMB, and other conferences. He served as a reviewer for a number of international refereed academic journals and refereed conferences. Contact: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, 2 Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian 116024, China. E-mail: [email protected].

Negin Sasanipoor

Negin Sasanipoor is a PhD student at the Faculty of Management and Economics of Dalian University of Technology in China. She received her MS in Management from Delijan University, Iran. Her research focuses on IT outsourcing and project management. Contact: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, 2 Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian 116024, China. E-mail: [email protected].

Meng-Meng Wang

Meng-Meng Wang is a PhD student at the Faculty of Management and Economics of Dalian University of Technology in China, and a joint visiting PhD student in Darla Moore School of Business of University of South Carolina from 2017 to 2019. She received her MS in Management Science and Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. Her research focuses on crowdsourcing contest and outsourcing performance. She has published about papers in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Online Information Review, Transportation Journal, and others. She has also presented several papers at CSWIM, CISIC, and other conferences. Contact: Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, U.S. E-mail: [email protected].