• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.293-307
• /
• 2002

In this study, industry-specific application systems operation cost estmation models are suggested. We reviewed operation cost models of previous researches, and developed a strong need for industry-specific operation outsourcing cost models. Security industry operation cost model and medical care industry outsourcing cost model are proposed, and tested with empirical data. We showed the validity of industry-specific application systems outsourcing cost models. Future research will be needed to develop outsourcing cost models for other industries and to refine cost models developed in this study.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.87-97
• /
• 2022

Purpose: In the last few decades, the ceramic industry has become an important industry for Indonesia. The resulting product must be handled properly, because if material & product handling is not carried out properly it will impact on the quality of product. Based on the logistics outsourcing research gaps in the ceramics industry to logistics service provider (LSP), this study aims to analyze the logistics service improvement of LSP in accordance with the needs of the ceramic industry to minimize logistics outsourcing risks. Research design, data and methodology: In the field study, observations, interviews and surveys related to production and logistics activities in the ceramic industry & LSP were carried out. The next step is to analyze logistics service of LSP needed by the ceramic industry. Results: The final findings obtained from this research are the LSP need to improve 1) knowledge; 2) technology capability; 3) relationships; 4) service quality; 5) innovation; 6) commitment in services. Conclusion: In order to reduce logistics outsourcing risks in the ceramic industry, LSP in Indonesia need to improve the logistics services required by the ceramic industry with a focus on six areas of improvement.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.49-81
• /
• 2007

Research in the IS (Information Systems) outsourcing has focused on the importance of legal contracts and partnerships between vendors and clients. Without detailed legal contracts, there is no guarantee that an outsourcing vendor would not indulge in self-serving behavior. In addition, partnerships can supplement legal contracts in managing the relationship between clients and vendors legal contracts by itself cannot deal with all the complexity and ambiguity involved with IS outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we introduce a psychological contract (between client and vendor) as an important variable for IS outsourcing success. A psychological contract refers to individual's mental beliefs about his or her mutual obligations in a contractual relationship (Rousseau, 1995). A psychological contract emerges when one party believes that a promise of future returns has been made, a contribution has been given, and thus, an obligation has been created to provide future benefits (Rousseau, 1989). An employmentpsychological contract, which is a widespread concept in psychology, refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, i.e. mutual obligations, values, expectations and aspirations that operate over and above the formal contract of employment (Smithson and Lewis, 2003). Similar to the psychological contract between an employer and employee, IS outsourcing involves a contract and a set of mutual obligations between client and vendor (Ho et al., 2003). Given the lack of prior research on psychological contracts in the IS outsourcing context, we extend such studies and give insights through investigating the role of psychological contracts between client and vendor. Psychological contract theory offers highly relevant and sound theoretical lens for studying IS outsourcing management because of its six distinctive principles: (1) it focuses on mutual (rather than one-sided) obligations between contractual parties, (2) it's more comprehensive than the concept of legal contract, (3) it's an individual-level construct, (4) it changes over time, (5) it affects organizational behaviors, and (6) it's susceptible to organizational factors (Koh et al., 2004; Rousseau, 1996; Coyle-Shapiro, 2000). The aim of this paper is to put the concept, psychological contract commitment (PCC), under the spotlight, by finding out its mediating effects between legal contracts/partnerships and IS outsourcing success. Our interest is in the psychological contract commitment (PCC) or commitment to psychological contracts, which is the extent to which a partner consistently and deeply concerns with what the counter-party believes as obligations during the IS project. The basic premise for the hypothesized relationship between PCC and success is that for outsourcing success, client and vendor should continually commit to mutual obligations in which both parties believe, rather than to only explicit obligations. The psychological contract commitment playsa pivotal role in evaluating a counter-party because it reflects what one party really expects from the other. If one party consistently shows high commitment to psychological contracts, the other party would evaluate it positively. This will increase positive reciprocation efforts of the other party, thus leading to successful outsourcing outcomes (McNeeley and Meglino, 1994). We have used matched sample data for this research. We have collected three responses from each set of a client and a vendor firm: a project manager of the client firm, a project member from the vendor firm with whom the project manager cooperated, and an end-user of the client company who actually used the outsourced information systems. Special caution was given to the data collection process to avoid any bias in responses. We first sent three types of questionnaires (A, Band C) to each project manager of the client firm, asking him/her to answer the first type of questionnaires (A).

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.21-39
• /
• 2013

As the utilization of information technology and the turbulence of technological change increase in organizations, the adoption of IT outsourcing also grows to manage IT resource more effectively and efficiently. In this new way of IT management technique, service level management(SLM) process becomes critical to derive success from the outsourcing in the view of end users in organization. Even though much of the research on service level management or agreement have been done during last decades, the performance of the service level management process have not been evaluated in terms of final objectives of the management efforts or success from the view of end-users. This study explores the relationship between SLM maturity and IT outsourcing success from the users' point of view by a analytical case study in four client organizations under an IT outsourcing vendor, which is a member company of a major Korean conglomerate. For setting up a model for the analysis, previous researches on service level management process maturity and information systems success are reviewed. In particular, information systems success from users' point of view are reviewed based the DeLone and McLean's study, which is argued and accepted as a comprehensively tested model of information systems success currently. The model proposed in this study argues that SLM process maturity influences information systems success, which is evaluated in terms of information quality, systems quality, service quality, and net effect proposed by DeLone and McLean. SLM process maturity can be measured in planning process, implementation process and operation and evaluation process. Instruments for measuring the factors in the proposed constructs of information systems success and SL management process maturity were collected from previous researches and evaluated for securing reliability and validity, utilizing appropriate statistical methods and pilot tests before exploring the case study. Four cases from four different companies under one vendor company were utilized for the analysis. All of the cases had been contracted in SLA(Service Level Agreement) and had implemented ITIL(IT Infrastructure Library), Six Sigma and BSC(Balanced Scored Card) methods since last several years, which means that all the client organizations pursued concerted efforts to acquire quality services from IT outsourcing from the organization and users' point of view. For comparing the differences among the four organizations in IT out-sourcing sucess, T-test and non-parametric analysis have been applied on the data set collected from the organization using survey instruments. The process maturities of planning and implementation phases of SLM are found not to influence on any dimensions of information systems success from users' point of view. It was found that the SLM maturity in the phase of operations and evaluation could influence systems quality only from users' view. This result seems to be quite against the arguments in IT outsourcing practices in the fields, which emphasize usually the importance of planning and implementation processes upfront in IT outsourcing projects. According to after-the-fact observation by an expert in an organization participating in the study, their needs and motivations for outsourcing contracts had been quite familiar already to the vendors as long-term partners under a same conglomerate, so that the maturity in the phases of planning and implementation seems not to be differentiating factors for the success of IT outsourcing. This study will be the foundation for the future research in the area of IT outsourcing management and success, in particular in the service level management. And also, it could guide managers in practice in IT outsourcing management to focus on service level management process in operation and evaluation stage especially for long-term outsourcing contracts under very unique context like Korean IT outsourcing projects. This study has some limitations in generalization because the sample size is small and the context itself is confined in an unique environment. For future exploration, survey based research could be designed and implemented.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.179-204
• /
• 2009

This paper aims to analyze the relationship between R&D outsourcing ratio (external R&D expenditures out of total R&D expenditures) and firm characteristics. Four hypotheses are tested using firm-level data with Tobit regression method. The major findings of this paper are as follows. First, firms with high technological capabilities, which are measured by R&D expenditures per sale and the number of patents per employee, rely more on R&D outsourcing. Nonetheless, firms that own R&D centers tend to rely less on external outsourcing of R&D. Second, firms with high managerial innovation capabilities, which is measured by the introduction of IT solutions, show higher R&D outsourcing ratio. Third, bigger firms are likely to spend more in external R&D than in internal R&D. This paper also discusses implications on R&D policy of Korea.

• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.177-197
• /
• 2016

Information technology (IT) outsourcing is considered an effective strategy to manage and maintain organizational technologies in a rapidly changing business environment. In particular, to meet diverse market needs, many organizations that outsource their IT functions practice a multi-vendor approach as their main outsourcing strategy. Although a few studies have been conducted about the multi-vendor approach, most previous works primarily emphasized conceptual arguments and normative prescriptions. In addition, scant attention has been directed toward the relational structure between the client and multiple vendors in the multi-vendor approach and its implications for outsourcing success. This study proposes a model from the transaction cost perspective by conceptualizing two dominant relational structures of the multi-vendor approach, namely, single-vendor dominant model and the multi-vendor dominant model, and hypothesizing their relationships with two outsourcing outcomes, project success and user satisfaction. The proposed model is examined using the data collected from 246 companies that have implemented multi-vendor outsourcing. As expected, results indicate that the single-vendor dominant model has a more significant impact on project success, whereas the multi-vendor dominant model has a more significant impact on user satisfaction. The study concludes with the theoretical implications and directions for future research.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.21-44
• /
• 2009

This study aims to understand the conditions for using logistics outsourcing of Korean enterprises, present existing problems, examine factors affecting utility, and analyze the pattern of logistics outsourcing based on contract term, and to ultimately contribute to enhancing competitiveness of logistics enterprises. Through the literature survey 8 factors were identified as three broad factors of corporate strategy, corporate characteristics, and environment. Factor analysis was conducted on the bases of 155 collected data among 400 distributions for 2 months from April to May in 2008. From the result of analysis, the implication and finding can be summarized into three aspects. Firstly, Korean companies value factors relative to corporate strategies as motivating factors for logistics outsourcing. Secondly, Korean companies consider logistics outsourcing depending on how to handle customers' demands and the severity of competition. Thirdly, it was found that product and organization characteristics are perceived as more important when contract term with logistics business is longer. The implications can be observed into two aspects. Firstly once the logistics outsourcing between manufacturers and logistics companies are determined, it was verified that mutual agreement, particular contracts and periodic communications can increase the outcome. Secondly the logistics outsourcing appeared to be different depending on the level of entering to foreign market and resulted in higher performance as well.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.181-203
• /
• 2008

This study suggests a model to identify relationships between Supply Chain Partnership(SCP) and the performance of Supply Chain Management(SCM) based on apparel companies and outsourcing suppliers of finished products that are in a position of getting into Supply Chain Level on apparel industry. This research model is based on an integrated model including a relationship between relationship formation factors and partnership strengthening factors in SCP; and supply chain performance a result of that relationship. The formation factors of SCP affect emotional elements(trust, commitment) of strengthening factors, and they, in turn, impact the performance of a supply chain through behavioral elements(collaboration, information sharing)16 hypotheses were formulated to research the degree of impact of SCP on supply chain performance. Theoretical and empirical research was executed in parallel to achieve the objectives of this study. Empirical research involved a research methodology using surveys. Survey target audiences were limited to designers and merchandisers over five years of experience with apparel companies and outsourcing suppliers for finished products operating mainly in Korea. SPSS 12.0 for Windows and AMOS 5.0 were used for data and statistical analysis. Reviewing the result of research model and identification of each hypothesis, total 11 from 16 hypotheses set by this research were selected, 5 hypotheses were dropped, and 4 meaningful paths were added.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.826-845
• /
• 2017

Outsourcing computation is one of the most important applications in cloud computing, and it has a huge ability to satisfy the demand of data centers. Modular exponentiation computation, broadly used in the cryptographic protocols, has been recognized as one of the most time-consuming calculation operations in cryptosystems. Previously, modular exponentiations can be securely outsourced by using two untrusted cloud servers. In this paper, we present two practical and secure outsourcing modular exponentiations schemes that support only one untrusted cloud server. Explicitly, we make the base and the index blind by putting them into a matrix before send to the cloud server. Our schemes provide better performance in higher efficiency and flexible checkability which support single cloud server. Additionally, there exists another advantage of our schemes that the schemes are proved to be secure and effective without any cryptographic assumptions.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.27-39
• /
• 2021

Purpose - According to the actual change of the logistics concept, the outsourcing activities of companies are actively progressing, and this is proceeding to third-party logistics and fourth-party logistics. This change in logistics situation raises the need for an in-depth understanding of four-party logistics. Research design, data, and methodology - In this study, first of all, the theoretical aspects of changes in the logistics concept are identified, along with the outsourcing and third-party logistics. Finally, the concept of four-party logistics, the background of its introduction, and future prospects will be explored. Result - The meaning of physical distribution is now passing through the existing three-party logistics and entering the era of four-way logistics. In addition, cost reduction and improvement of customer service through advanced logistics strategy can be said to be the company's competitiveness. Through this study, it can be seen that the conceptual change of logistics and the introduction of four-party logistics are closely related to the survival of the company's deficit in the market. Conclusion - In modern society, logistical competitiveness is the competitiveness of a company, and logistical activities of a company can be achieved through the process of entering the four-party logistics from the existing third-party logistics based on outsourcing. Then more customer-oriented service can be provided.