Background: Many companies have outsourced their IT-operations and their expectations of what this IT-outsourcing will contribute to the business are high. Cost cuts are not always a natural outcome of IT-outsourcing. Many companies that have outsourced their IT-operations consider it to be problematic and complex to exercise management control and reach cost control which was the purpose of the IT-outsourcing. Purpose: To describe and analyze what affect IT-outsourcing has on a company’s management control system and a company’s possibility to exercise cost control. We will also make a suggestion on how a company can arrange their IT- outsourcing to facilitate management control. Method: We have through a case study like approach interviewed IT-managers, IT- controllers and IT-maintenance personnel in five large corporations in Sweden. Results: It’s common that a company that decides to outsource their IT- operations underestimates the difficulties that occur when the company transforms their operations from producing IT-services in house to ordering from a supplier. After a while the company often realizes that it lacks sufficient competence to order IT-services. There is also a great risk that the company becomes very dependent on its IT-supplier. For the company to reach the optimum order volume of IT-services from the IT-supplier it’s very important to create a competent procurement department for IT-services. A key factor in reaching a successful IT-outsourcing with good competence to order IT-services is to keep the architectural role within the company. Furthermore is the design of the IT-contract one of the most important tools in creating a solution for IT-outsourcing that facilitates management control. Examples of important ingredients in a good IT-contract are rules how to conduct benchmarking and how the company can put competitive pressure on the IT-supplier. / Bakgrund: Det är många företag somhar outsourcat sin IT-verksamhet och förhoppningarna om vad IT-outsourcing ska medföra för verksamheten är höga. Kostnadsinbesparingar och effektiviseringar är dock inte en självklar följd av IT-outsourcing. Många företag som har outsourcat sin IT-verksamhet uppfattar det som problematiskt och komplext att utöva ekonomisk styrning och uppnå den kostnadskontroll som eftersträvades när IT-verksamheten outsourcades. Syfte: Att beskriva och analysera hur ett företags ekonomiska styrning och möjligheter till kostnadskontroll påverkas av att IT-verksamheten outsourcas. Vidare vill vi utarbeta ett förslag på hur ett beställarföretag kan konstruera sin IT-outsourcing för att underlätta utövandet av ekonomisk styrning och kostnadskontroll. Metod: Vi har i en fallstudieliknande studie intervjuat IT-chefer, IT- controllers och förvaltningsansvariga på fem stora bolag i Sverige som har outsourcat sin IT-verksamhet. Resultat: Det är vanligt att beställarföretaget underskattar svårigheterna med omställningen att gå från att ha varit utförare till att bli beställare och efter ett tag upptäcker att det saknas tillräcklig beställarkompetens. Risken är också stor att beställarföretaget hamnar i en mycket stark beroendeställning till sin IT-leverantör. För att beställarföretaget ska hitta den optimala volymen av IT-tjänster är det viktigt att beställarföretaget bygger upp en kompetent beställarorganisation. En nyckelfaktor för att uppnå en framgångsrik outsourcing där beställarkompetensen är god är att behålla arkitekturrollen inom företaget. Vidare är utformningen av kontraktet ett av de viktigaste verktygen för att skapa en outsourcinglösning som underlättar utövandet av ekonomisk styrning. Exempel på viktiga beståndsdelar i ett bra kontrakt är klausuler som reglerar hur benchmarking och en konkurrensutsättning ska gå till samt hur effektiviseringsvinster ska fördelas mellan parterna.

Taiwan¡¦s e-commerce market value continued to grow, the scale is about NT$ 430 billion in 2011, as compared to 2010 growing 20 percent. Which B2C e-commerce market reached NT$ 250 billion in 2011 accounted for about 6.4% of the overall retail market revenue, the scale compared to 2010 growing 22%. The relatively low entry barriers lead to a lot of companies to establish. However, each year about 60 percent of E-commerce Company out of the market in such a competitive situation. It is important that E-commerce Company must have a successful business model. Past research of value creation for e-commerce only take single theory such as transaction cost theory, Resource-Based View, Value Chain, Network Theory and Schumpeter Innovation, however, that failed to fully explain to the e-commerce company's value creation. Therefore, this study will according to five theoretical, and based on secondary data and literature for the case study company PChome, Books, and Mayuki to identify the business model of e-commerce company in Taiwan. Through this research found Taiwan¡¦s e-commerce companies are gradually expand from a small niche market to mass market, in addition, " cheap is not the most important, but to provide free activities for consumers that feeling add value. "

With the coming of digital times, global competition resulted in every industry expanding their requirements in supply chain integration and enterprise resource planning. The importance of information system integration industries also increases with time. When all kind of industries continues to integrate supply chain and establish cooperative partnerships, trying to exploit cooperation to acquire more competencies in the market, we want to know whether the information system integration industries establish their cooperative relationship. Therefore, our study tried to review the actives and relationship between integrators by the systems integration service process. Through the theory¡¦s guiding, we attend to induce the factors of inter-firm cooperation in system integration industries. We use multiple case study to design our research¡Aand select three cases to study. Semi-structural interview is used to collect needed data to understand the true cooperative relationship between integrators. According to transaction cost theory, resource-base theory and social exchange theory, we propose some theoretical propositions to guiding the real cases analysis. The conclusions not only describe the real cooperation in Taiwan system integration industries, but also induce several factors of cooperative relationship between integrators, including product characteristics, transaction cost, resource, trust and guanxi. Moreover, the transaction cost is the most important element in the cooperative relationship between information system integrators.

Abstract By taking the advantages of the Internet technology, the online bookstores developed personalized services, such as providing information for making transaction decision which lowers the consuming cost, fastens the customer loyalty, and creates competitiveness. The purpose of setting up the service mechanism is to win back the consumer. Therefore, understood the customer¡¦s usage intention on the personalized services would benefit the online bookstores to build up their personalized service mechanism and to improve the practical values of the personalized services. ¡@¡@Utilizing Transaction Cost Theory as the extended viewpoint of Technology Acceptance Model, this thesis not only analyzed if the online bookstore¡¦s personalized services impact the consumer¡¦s transactional cost, but also investigated if the benefits arisen from the personalized services vary by other factors. By means of the analysis of the transaction cost and the investigation of the consumer¡¦s useful recognition, the usage intention of the online bookstore¡¦s personalized services can be reasoned out. In this thesis, the acceptability of the online bookstore¡¦s personalized services is realized, the possible factors that could affect the consumer¡¦s usage intention are discussed. The major findings are: the benefits of transaction cost arisen from personalized services were affected by the transactional frequency. More transactional activities, more benefits arisen from the personalized services were observed. Consumers believe that the personalized services provided by online bookstores can lower their transactional cost while their subjectiveness and need are being cared. In addition, different levels of consumer¡¦s useful recognition were obtained while the personal feelings or realizations vary with the contents of the personalized services. According to the findings, the online bookstore¡¦s personalized services are highly recognizable by consumers, especially at the fields of ¡§Purchase & Process Feedback Service¡¨ (PPFS) and ¡§One-by-one Customer Service¡¨ (OCS). The useful recognition for ¡§E-papers Service¡¨ is also sound but relatively lower than that of the others. Referring to the Technology Acceptance Model, the findings show that consumers are highly intentioned to use the online bookstore¡¦s personalized services.

This dissertation examines the forces that drive organizational structure and boundary decisions. Using theoretical concepts drawn from transaction cost theory and agency theory, this dissertation develops a model that draws attention to behavioral and outcome distinctions in information flow. Specifically it examines how characteristics of these different types of management information alter the organizational design outcomes predicted by the two theory bases above. The foundational arguments regarding firm boundaries and structure are based on the two contracting modes of agency theory, behavioral and outcome. The construct of information localization (IL), defined as theneed to use information within its immediate context (or conversely, the difficulty of transferring and utilizing information outside of its immediate context), is introduced and used to predict organizational design decisions. This construct represents a synthesis of prior conceptions of information characteristics and is used both to capture salient characteristics of management information and to facilitate an examination of the impacts of different information technology (IT) applications. The relationship between information localization and firm boundaries and structure is tested at the task level. The relationship of information technology with boundary and structure decisions is explained using the model and tested concurrently with the test of the information localization hypotheses. A comprehensive model is proposed and propositions to guide future research are developed. The distinction between outcome and behavioral information localization allows a more nuanced assessment of the impacts of information and information technology on the organization of work. The empirical results suggest that the impact of IT on outcome information localization is negligible for tasks with low outcome IL but increases the likelihood of outsourcing for tasks with high outcome IL. Contrary to prior findings utilizing different conceptualizations of information flow, the impact of technology on behavioral IL on autonomy showed that applications of IT may increase autonomy (decentralization of decision-making) rather than decrease it. / text

Cloud computing is becoming a viable option for Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and business stakeholders to consider in today’s information technology (IT) environment, characterized by shrinking budgets and dynamic changes in the technology landscape. The objective of this study is to help Federal Government decision makers appropriately decide on the suitability of applications for migration to cloud computing. I draw from four theoretical perspectives: transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, agency theory and dynamic capabilities theory and use a conjoint analysis approach to understand stakeholder attitudes, opinions and behaviors in their decision to migrate applications to cloud computing. Based on a survey of 81 government cloud computing stakeholders, this research examined the relative importance of thirteen factors that organizations consider when migrating applications to cloud computing. Our results suggest that trust in the cloud computing vendor is the most significant factor, followed by the relative cost advantage, sensing capabilities and application complexity. A total of twelve follow-up interviews were conducted to provide explanation of our results. The contributions of the dissertation are twofold: 1) it provides novel insights into the relative importance of factors that influence government organizations’ decision to migrate applications to cloud computing, and 2) it assists senior government decision makers to appropriately weigh and prioritize the factors that are critical in application migration to cloud computing.

Nas últimas décadas, ocorreram profundas reestruturações em diversas áreas, na ciência, na economia, na indústria, e conseqüentemente, nas organizações que compõem este cenário. A complexidade, velocidade e, competitividade existentes no cenário empresarial impõem a existência de formas organizacionais que permitam a rápida capacidade de aprendizagem e mudança. Existe espaço para justificar trabalhos de natureza teóricos e empíricos, ao se procurar verificar quais são os mecanismos de coordenação das formas híbridas, bem como verificar a efetividade da confiança, como um destes mecanismos e em que condições isto acontece. O foco central deste trabalho foi verificar o papel da confiança na definição de formas organizacionais. Por intermédio da elaboração de um framework, estudou-se a vitivinicultura brasileira, abrangendo a uva de mesa no Vale do São Francisco e o vinho na Serra Gaúcha. Além do foco central, as contribuições teóricas foram: trazer para o Agronegócio uma perspectiva mais abrangente de aplicação da Economia dos Custos de Transação, a elaboração de um conceito de coordenação a partir das abordagens presentes no framework, teste teórico e empírico a se confiança é um mecanismo de coordenação. A investigação baseou-se em dados coletados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, observação direta, entrevistas, questionários aplicados a 120 produtores na Serra Gaúcha. O objetivo principal do estudo foi analisar o papel da confiança na identificação de formas organizacionais na vitivinicultura brasileira, por meio da construção de um framework com vistas a uma possível integração teórica entre a Confiança, Teoria Organizacional (relações de dependência e interdependências) e Economia dos Custos de Transação. Os resultados encontrados permitem considerar a confiança como fator primordial na identificação de formas organizacionais, uma vez que se pôde considerá-la como um mecanismo de coordenação. O framework proposto mostrou-se consistente na identificação dos tipos de mecanismo de coordenação, tipos de confiança, e formas organizacionais presentes no Vale do São Francisco e na Serra Gaúcha. / In the last decades they happened deep restructurings in several areas, as in the science, in the economy, in the industry and consequently in the organizations that compose this scenery. The complexity, speed and existent competitiveness in the business scenery impose the existence of organizational forms that allow the fast learning capacity and change. Space exists to justify theoretical and empiric nature works, trying to verify which they are the mechanisms of coordination in the hybrid forms, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the trust as one of these mechanisms and in that conditions this happens. The central focus of this work was to verify the role of Trust in the definition of organizational forms. Through the application of a framework, brazilian viticulture was studied, including the table grape in Vale do São Francisco and the wine in Serra Gaúcha. Besides the central focus the theoretical contributions were:bring to Agrobusiness a more realistic dimension of the Economy of Transaction Costs, elaborate a concept of coordination based in present approaches of the framework, to test theoretical and empirically if trust is a coordination mechanism. The investigation based itself on data collected through bibliographical and documentary research, direct observation, interviews, questionnaires applied to 120 producers in the Serra Gaúcha. The main objective of the study was to analyze the role of trust in the identification of organizational forms in Brazilian viticulture, through the construction of a framework aiming a possible theoretical integration between Trust, Organizational Theory (relationships of dependence and interdependences) and Economy of Transaction Costs. The found results allow us to consider trust as a primordial elemnt in identificating organizational forms, since it can be considered a coordination mechanism. The proposed framework was shown solid; in identificating types of coordination mechanism, types of trust, and in the present organizational forms in Vale do San Francisco and in Serra Gaúcha.

Nas últimas décadas, ocorreram profundas reestruturações em diversas áreas, na ciência, na economia, na indústria, e conseqüentemente, nas organizações que compõem este cenário. A complexidade, velocidade e, competitividade existentes no cenário empresarial impõem a existência de formas organizacionais que permitam a rápida capacidade de aprendizagem e mudança. Existe espaço para justificar trabalhos de natureza teóricos e empíricos, ao se procurar verificar quais são os mecanismos de coordenação das formas híbridas, bem como verificar a efetividade da confiança, como um destes mecanismos e em que condições isto acontece. O foco central deste trabalho foi verificar o papel da confiança na definição de formas organizacionais. Por intermédio da elaboração de um framework, estudou-se a vitivinicultura brasileira, abrangendo a uva de mesa no Vale do São Francisco e o vinho na Serra Gaúcha. Além do foco central, as contribuições teóricas foram: trazer para o Agronegócio uma perspectiva mais abrangente de aplicação da Economia dos Custos de Transação, a elaboração de um conceito de coordenação a partir das abordagens presentes no framework, teste teórico e empírico a se confiança é um mecanismo de coordenação. A investigação baseou-se em dados coletados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, observação direta, entrevistas, questionários aplicados a 120 produtores na Serra Gaúcha. O objetivo principal do estudo foi analisar o papel da confiança na identificação de formas organizacionais na vitivinicultura brasileira, por meio da construção de um framework com vistas a uma possível integração teórica entre a Confiança, Teoria Organizacional (relações de dependência e interdependências) e Economia dos Custos de Transação. Os resultados encontrados permitem considerar a confiança como fator primordial na identificação de formas organizacionais, uma vez que se pôde considerá-la como um mecanismo de coordenação. O framework proposto mostrou-se consistente na identificação dos tipos de mecanismo de coordenação, tipos de confiança, e formas organizacionais presentes no Vale do São Francisco e na Serra Gaúcha. / In the last decades they happened deep restructurings in several areas, as in the science, in the economy, in the industry and consequently in the organizations that compose this scenery. The complexity, speed and existent competitiveness in the business scenery impose the existence of organizational forms that allow the fast learning capacity and change. Space exists to justify theoretical and empiric nature works, trying to verify which they are the mechanisms of coordination in the hybrid forms, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the trust as one of these mechanisms and in that conditions this happens. The central focus of this work was to verify the role of Trust in the definition of organizational forms. Through the application of a framework, brazilian viticulture was studied, including the table grape in Vale do São Francisco and the wine in Serra Gaúcha. Besides the central focus the theoretical contributions were:bring to Agrobusiness a more realistic dimension of the Economy of Transaction Costs, elaborate a concept of coordination based in present approaches of the framework, to test theoretical and empirically if trust is a coordination mechanism. The investigation based itself on data collected through bibliographical and documentary research, direct observation, interviews, questionnaires applied to 120 producers in the Serra Gaúcha. The main objective of the study was to analyze the role of trust in the identification of organizational forms in Brazilian viticulture, through the construction of a framework aiming a possible theoretical integration between Trust, Organizational Theory (relationships of dependence and interdependences) and Economy of Transaction Costs. The found results allow us to consider trust as a primordial elemnt in identificating organizational forms, since it can be considered a coordination mechanism. The proposed framework was shown solid; in identificating types of coordination mechanism, types of trust, and in the present organizational forms in Vale do San Francisco and in Serra Gaúcha.

Nas últimas décadas, ocorreram profundas reestruturações em diversas áreas, na ciência, na economia, na indústria, e conseqüentemente, nas organizações que compõem este cenário. A complexidade, velocidade e, competitividade existentes no cenário empresarial impõem a existência de formas organizacionais que permitam a rápida capacidade de aprendizagem e mudança. Existe espaço para justificar trabalhos de natureza teóricos e empíricos, ao se procurar verificar quais são os mecanismos de coordenação das formas híbridas, bem como verificar a efetividade da confiança, como um destes mecanismos e em que condições isto acontece. O foco central deste trabalho foi verificar o papel da confiança na definição de formas organizacionais. Por intermédio da elaboração de um framework, estudou-se a vitivinicultura brasileira, abrangendo a uva de mesa no Vale do São Francisco e o vinho na Serra Gaúcha. Além do foco central, as contribuições teóricas foram: trazer para o Agronegócio uma perspectiva mais abrangente de aplicação da Economia dos Custos de Transação, a elaboração de um conceito de coordenação a partir das abordagens presentes no framework, teste teórico e empírico a se confiança é um mecanismo de coordenação. A investigação baseou-se em dados coletados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, observação direta, entrevistas, questionários aplicados a 120 produtores na Serra Gaúcha. O objetivo principal do estudo foi analisar o papel da confiança na identificação de formas organizacionais na vitivinicultura brasileira, por meio da construção de um framework com vistas a uma possível integração teórica entre a Confiança, Teoria Organizacional (relações de dependência e interdependências) e Economia dos Custos de Transação. Os resultados encontrados permitem considerar a confiança como fator primordial na identificação de formas organizacionais, uma vez que se pôde considerá-la como um mecanismo de coordenação. O framework proposto mostrou-se consistente na identificação dos tipos de mecanismo de coordenação, tipos de confiança, e formas organizacionais presentes no Vale do São Francisco e na Serra Gaúcha. / In the last decades they happened deep restructurings in several areas, as in the science, in the economy, in the industry and consequently in the organizations that compose this scenery. The complexity, speed and existent competitiveness in the business scenery impose the existence of organizational forms that allow the fast learning capacity and change. Space exists to justify theoretical and empiric nature works, trying to verify which they are the mechanisms of coordination in the hybrid forms, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the trust as one of these mechanisms and in that conditions this happens. The central focus of this work was to verify the role of Trust in the definition of organizational forms. Through the application of a framework, brazilian viticulture was studied, including the table grape in Vale do São Francisco and the wine in Serra Gaúcha. Besides the central focus the theoretical contributions were:bring to Agrobusiness a more realistic dimension of the Economy of Transaction Costs, elaborate a concept of coordination based in present approaches of the framework, to test theoretical and empirically if trust is a coordination mechanism. The investigation based itself on data collected through bibliographical and documentary research, direct observation, interviews, questionnaires applied to 120 producers in the Serra Gaúcha. The main objective of the study was to analyze the role of trust in the identification of organizational forms in Brazilian viticulture, through the construction of a framework aiming a possible theoretical integration between Trust, Organizational Theory (relationships of dependence and interdependences) and Economy of Transaction Costs. The found results allow us to consider trust as a primordial elemnt in identificating organizational forms, since it can be considered a coordination mechanism. The proposed framework was shown solid; in identificating types of coordination mechanism, types of trust, and in the present organizational forms in Vale do San Francisco and in Serra Gaúcha.

With the increased demand for doing more with less, public sector managers embrace outsourcing back-office functions through a shared service model; however, maintaining service quality for public sector shared service centers (SSC) in financial management during peak cycles is a challenge. Framed with the transaction cost economy theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by SSC managers in a public sector company to maintain service quality. Seven participants with more than 4 years of SSC experience in public-sector companies participated in phone interviews including SSC department heads, managers, and a supervisor of a public-sector company in Mississippi who implemented strategies to successfully maintain service quality in the SSC relationship. Through method triangulation, a review of service level agreements and key performance indicators supplemented open-ended semistructured interviews. The research findings included emergent themes of training and documentation, employee engagement, control and communication, efficiency and automation, and standardization and metrics. The SSC strategies in training and documentation, control and communication, and employee engagement were fundamental for maintaining service quality in SSC relationship. Study findings may help public sector SSC managers understand how to incorporate and implement successful strategies in financial management divisions to maintain service quality. Positive social change includes identifying methods to increased efficiency and service quality in a financial management division. Society could benefit from improvements in employee work-life balance, reduced turnover, and increases in the economic well-being of community residents.