Developing a framework for analyzing IS/IT backsourcing

Abstract

Companies implementing an IS/IT backsourcing strategy (i.e. bringing IT functions back in-house after they have been outsourced) aiming at increasing operational effectiveness may face several problems. In this paper, we develop a framework characterizing backsourcing as an organizational innovation. We offer a set of propositions on the adoption of a backsourcing strategy. This framework recognizes the role that social context and organizational action plan play in the adoption of IS/IT backsourcing. It serves to clarify why organizations backsource and to understand the antecedent of backsourcing, especially the outsourcing decision. Several hypotheses try to explain the backsourcing decision. The framework has value for both researchers and practitioners. Two major issues are raised in this paper: 1) development of a framework allowing us to understand companies' backsourcing decisions, 2) development of a set of hypotheses aimed at validating the framework. The backsourcing framework is based on innovation. The fundamental hypothesis of our work supposes that a backsourcing decision is based on an innovation process, taking into account the social context as well as the organizational actions. It has been validated on a limited set of data.