• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.71-90
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• 2012

Although it has been studied for a long time in various disciplines, most of control theories remain being developed by analyzing relatively simple tasks. Even recent research on control of information systems development explains only a small part of control phenomena observed in the real world projects. This research focuses on identifying and analyzing the concepts and structures in order to make them useful for understanding and explaining control of information systems development comprehensively This investigation utilizes the complementary relationship between views on control from organizational and economic perspectives. A conceptual framework developed by integrating previous research on control allows us to analyze the development of information systems for control purposes. The results of discussion about control mechanisms and network can be used as guidelines for designing control systems in real projects. Analysis of control networks shows that control of development projects requires quite complex networks intertwining a variety of controllers and controlees. The results of this research are expected to contribute to correcting the unbalanced status of IS research which has emphasized too heavily on planning and implementation, and deepening and widening our understanding about controlling development projects. Practitioners can use the results as guidelines for designing control mechanisms and networks, and get alerted by them about the agency risks inherent in outsourced developments.