The Interdependence of Coordination and Cooperation in Information Technology Outsourcing

Abstract

One of the critical success factors in information technology outsourcing projects is how partners learn through interactions with each other. This learning facilitates the complex problem-solving processes and enables partners to take different perspectives, explore alternatives, and seek innovation in outsourcing projects. For this learning to occur, partners must strive to enhance collaboration, but generally, collaboration is viewed too narrowly as partners engage in coordination and cooperation independently of each other. Our framework suggests that learning is more effective when partners collaborate by cooperating to pursue jointly determined goals and coordinating to adjust their actions toward these goals. This study compares the independent model of collaboration with the interdependent model. The interdependent model suggests that coordination and cooperation mechanisms are interdependent and jointly influence learning outcomes. The findings show that the interdependent model provides a better explanation of the impact of coordination and cooperation mechanisms on relational learning than the independent model. This finding provides a more comprehensive understanding of relationship dynamics between partners. It also provides guidance for developing collaboration mechanisms that help synergize coordination and cooperation. Our study further shows that the perceptions of coordination and cooperation mechanisms are not symmetric between clients and vendors.