• Information Systems Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.147-168
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• 2017

We investigated perceptual similarity and the difference between client and vendor in information technology (IT) outsourcing projects. Specifically, we focused on each player's perception of how the fit of governance and peripheral knowledge affects the performance of IT project outsourcing. For 107 IT projects, we surveyed both client and vendor in the same IT projects and compared the responses of each side. Through a dyadic analysis, we first found that both client and vendor put more weight on the vendor's peripheral knowledge than that of the client as a positive influencer of project performance. However, regarding the governance style of an IT project, client and vendor showed completely different perspectives. The client believed that the vendor's peripheral knowledge positively contributes to the performance of IT project under the governance of outcome control. However, the vendor showed that its peripheral knowledge creates synergy effects under the governance of process control. Our interpretation of the perceptual similarity and difference between client and vendor delivers managerial implications for businesses that process IT projects.