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Word: Toward a Model of Gossip and Power in the Workplace Technische Universität München Fakultät für Informatik Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar The Project Success of IT Outsourcing Vendors – The Influence of IT Human Resource Management and of the Governance Structure Christoph Pflügler, Master of Science with honors Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Informatik der Technischen Universität München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) genehmigten Dissertation. Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Martin Bichler Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar 2. Prof. Dr. Jason Bennett Thatcher Die Dissertation wurde am 12.08.2019 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die Fakultät für Informatik am 31.01.2020 angenommen. Preface This dissertation is the end result of a process that started during my master program “Finance and Information Management”. As this program was quite research focused, it included a three- month guided research phase. Dr. Markus Böhm was my supervisor and supported me in writing my first paper. This paper developed a carve-out maturity model and was presented at the Wirtschaftsinformatik 2015 conference. The guided research phase arouse my interest in the world of research. During writing my master thesis, I was convinced by my supervisor Prof. Dr. Michael Schermann to apply for a position at the Chair for Information Systems of Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar. I joined the research team of Dr. Manuel Wiesche in January 2015 together with Maximilian Schreieck, whom I already knew well from our time at TUM: Junge Akademie. Now, over four years later, I do not regret the decision at all to first have a look into the world of research and then pursue a career in industry. I like to thank my supporters. This dissertation would not have been possible without their help. First of all, special thanks to my doctoral advisor Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar for the possibility to be part of his chair and for all the opportunities that he has offered me. I had the great opportunity to visit Prof. Damien Joseph in Singapore for six weeks and to visit all conferences where my papers had been accepted. I also like to thank his wife Carol Krcmar for her great help in improving the language and the readability of my papers. I am deeply indebted to my research group manager Dr. Manuel Wiesche. Despite his tight schedule, he always took his time for discussions and giving advice. Manuel’s demanding but also rewarding management style helped my dissertation project to always remain on track. I also owe thanks to my colleague Maximilian Schreieck. His structured and organized way of working helped us a lot in finishing our research project ExCELL. Furthermore, I like to thanks my colleagues Michael Lang, Tobias Riasanow, Jörg Weking, Thomas Köhn and Dr. Harald Kienegger for their friendship inside as well as outside of the office. Special thanks also to my parents. Their support throughout my life and the values that they have taught me lay the foundations for this dissertation. Last, but not least, many thanks to my girlfriend Laura for her understanding and encouragement. She was a great support during the final months of this dissertation. Munich, April 2019 Christoph Pflügler Abstract This cumulative dissertation analyzes the influence of human resource management and of project governance on the project success of IT outsourcing vendors. Within this broad research area, I consider the following three research areas. First, the formation of subgroups within IT project teams and their influence on project performance are analyzed. Second, I consider the influence of shock events on the turnover of IT professionals and possible retention strategies to prevent turnover. Third, factors influencing the choice of project governance that should be part of an endogenous theory of IT outsourcing are analyzed. These research areas are analyzed with a mixed-method approach, but most studies have a quantitative approach due to the access to a unique archive data set of a German IT outsourcing vendor. In total, this cumulative dissertation comprises seven publications that address these three research areas. Regarding subgroups in IT project teams, we find that identity-based factors do not lead to the formation of subgroups. However, geographical distance, language, previous ties, and task assignment based subgroups emerge in IT teams. Our results show that subgroups have a positive as well as negative influence on project performance depending on the subgroup type. Regarding the second research area, we find that turnover spreads in the organizational network of IT organizations. Our findings suggest that retention strategies have to be aligned with the characteristics of the respective IT professional. Regarding the choice of project governance, we find that environmental uncertainty is the only construct of transaction cost economics with a high influence on the choice of project governance, and that an endogenous theory of IT outsourcing should consider a multi-level approach. The obtained findings are subject to limitations. First, most of the studies are based on a large archive data set that comes from only one IT outsourcing vendor, which limits the generalizability of our findings. Second, the data quality of single attributes of the data set is low. Third, the operationalization of constructs as specified by the original theory was sometimes quite challenging. Fourth, certain models only show moderate explanatory power. Fifth, the data set only contains data that is observable by the IT outsourcing vendor and no psychological data of the employees. This dissertation discusses possibilities for future research regarding the three research areas and regarding other research areas that can be addressed by the unique archive data set. Table of Contents PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... I ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. III LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................... X LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... XI LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................... XV PART A ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 1.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Structure ................................................................................................................... 4 2. Theoretical Background ........................................................................................... 6 2.1 Project Performance of ITO Vendors ...................................................................... 6 2.2 Human Resource Management in IT Projects ......................................................... 7 Turnover of IT Professionals ................................................................................ 9 Subgroups in IT Projects .................................................................................... 11 2.3 Governance of IT Outsourcing Projects ................................................................ 12 3. Research Questions ................................................................................................ 14 4. Research Strategy ................................................................................................... 18 4.1 Employed Data Set ................................................................................................ 18 4.2 Research Approach ................................................................................................ 19 Epistemological Position .................................................................................... 19 Procedures of Inquiry ......................................................................................... 20 Time Frame of the Study .................................................................................... 23 Research Methods .............................................................................................. 23 4.2.4.1 Quantitative Methods ..................................................................................... 23 4.2.4.2 Qualitative Methods ....................................................................................... 27 5. Research Studies .................................................................................................... 29 PART B1 - ACCEPTED PUBLICATIONS ..................................................................................... 34 1. Subgroups in Agile and Traditional IT Project Teams .......................................... 35 1.1 Introduction
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