The primary purpose of this chapter is to present descriptive real-life case studies of two very different offshore-outsourced custom software development projects (that the author has actually worked for). The first case study discusses the practical issues in two fixed-term/fixed-price custom...

This paper advances theory on the process of collaboration between entities and its implications on the quality of services, information, and/or products (SIPs) that the collaborating entities provide to each other. It investigates the scenario of outsourced IS projects (such as custom software...

'Offshoring' implies that service providers are IT personnel located in a country which is different from the client's country; this is also known as global-sourcing or offshore-sourcing. For example, both China and India may be considered as 'offshore' countries with respect to the United...

While there is considerable empirical evidence on the impact of liberalizing trade in goods, the effects of services liberalization have not been empirically established. This study examines the link between services sector reforms and the productivity of manufacturing industries relying on...

This paper analyzes the impact of FDI on domestic firm entry and firm size distributions in 245 industries in the Czech Republic during 1994 to 2000. We find that larger foreign presence stimulates the entry of domestic firms within the same industry indicating the existence of positive...

The Indian software industry appears to provide a startling confirmation of the benefits of multinational investment in a fledgling industrial sector. The main question explored in this paper is how and why this happened. We find that multinational firms had an important catalysing effect on the...

This report is the result of the joint work of a number of experts from various fields who have been - for many years – analysing the multidimensional effects of EU institutions and cooperation with Member States pursuant to European values and mechanisms. The authors summarise the benefits of...

The world's audit industry is concentrated in the hands of four big accounting firms: PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (the Big 4). These firms are in a strong position in that they audit the financial statements of nearly all the global public companies...

This study attempts to highlight the paradoxical aspects of top management power contests within customer firms that outsource information technology (IT) work. Intraorganizational power theory forms the overarching theoretical basis for this study. The focus is on the antecedents and...

IT outsourcing contracts are often discontinued in favor of other alternatives (returning to in-house development, or switching to another vendor). Switching costs are experienced when terminating a business relationship and securing an alternative. We tried to answer the question: do switching...