An Institutional Logics Perspective on IT Impact Sourcing: Case Study of a Developing Country Public-Private Partnership

IT impact sourcing (ITIS) is a socially-responsible business model and a growing phenomenon in developing countries, seeking to drive the benefits of IT outsourcing to marginalised groups. Inherent to many impact sourcing initiatives is a tension between social and commercial objectives, and this might be particularly apparent where the ITIS initiative is a public-private partnership (PPP); yet both ITIS and PPP are relatively little-researched in a developing country context. This paper uses qualitative field data from a Malaysian ITIS case study that was a public-private partnership, viewed through the lens of institutional logics and conflict management strategies. Analysis of three vignettes during the negotiation of the initiative shows that one partner always used a competitive approach to conflict management, something which led issues to remain unresolved and which led the partnership arrangement to steadily loosen. The outcome was always a domination of private logic over public logic. As a result, and lacking an overt advocate, the welfare goals of impact sourcing were somewhat sidelined. Our paper contributes by showing a) how institutional logics helps explain the outcome of development-oriented IT partnerships with hybrid goals, and b) how the framework of conflict management strategies helps explain the practice of institutional logics.

[1]  Brian Nicholson,et al.  Exploring the effects of liminality on corporate social responsibility in inter-firm outsourcing relationships , 2017, J. Inf. Technol..

[2]  Renate E. Meyer,et al.  The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism , 2017 .

[3]  M. N. Ravishankar,et al.  Impact sourcing ventures and local communities: a frame alignment perspective , 2016, Inf. Syst. J..

[4]  B. Nicholson,et al.  Assessing the Social Development Potential of Impact Sourcing , 2016 .

[5]  Richard Heeks,et al.  EXPLORING HYBRIDS OF COMMERCIAL AND WELFARE LOGICS IN IMPACT SOURCING , 2015 .

[6]  Yao-Hua Tan,et al.  Understanding transnational information systems with supranational governance: A multi-level conflict management perspective , 2015, Gov. Inf. Q..

[7]  Roman Beck,et al.  The Interplay of Institutional Logics in it Public-Private Partnerships , 2015, DATB.

[8]  R. McIvor,et al.  Self-interest or the greater good: How political and rational dynamics influence the outsourcing process , 2015 .

[9]  N. Carbonara,et al.  PPP for public infrastructure in Italy: opportunity and challenges , 2014 .

[10]  Wendy K. Smith,et al.  Multiple Institutional Logics in Organizations: Explaining Their Varied Nature and Implications , 2014 .

[11]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  Coordinating Expertise Across Knowledge Boundaries in Offshore-Outsourcing Projects: The Role of Codification , 2014, MIS Q..

[12]  Madhuchhanda Das Aundhe,et al.  Explanation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Outcomes in E-Government -- A Social Capital Perspective , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[13]  Erran Carmel,et al.  The Impact of Impact Sourcing: Framing a Research Agenda , 2014, Information Systems Outsourcing.

[14]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Conceptualising ICT4D project champions , 2013, ICTD.

[15]  M. N. Ravishankar,et al.  Public ICT innovations: a strategic ambiguity perspective , 2013, J. Inf. Technol..

[16]  A. Pezeshkan,et al.  Which businesses actually help the global poor , 2013 .

[17]  Shirin Madon,et al.  Social IT outsourcing and development: theorising the linkage , 2013, Inf. Syst. J..

[18]  Anne-Claire Pache,et al.  Inside the Hybrid Organization: Selective Coupling as a Response to Competing Institutional Logics , 2013 .

[19]  Jane E. Fountain,et al.  Enhancing Information Services through Public-Private Partnerships: Information Technology Knowledge Transfer Underlying Structures to Develop Shared Services in the U.S. and Korea , 2013 .

[20]  Donald Hislop,et al.  The Establishment of social IT sourcing organizations: An Impression Management Perspective , 2013, ICIS.

[21]  Roman Beck,et al.  Alignment of Divergent Organizational Cultures in IT Public-Private Partnerships , 2012, Business & Information Systems Engineering.

[22]  Angel Saz-Carranza,et al.  Managing Competing Institutional Logics in Public–Private Joint Ventures , 2012 .

[23]  Niall Hayes,et al.  Competing institutional logics and sustainable development: the case of geographic information systems in Brazil's Amazon region , 2011, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[24]  Siddharth Joshi,et al.  Market creation and poverty alleviation through telecenters , 2010, ICEGOV '10.

[25]  Murali Raman,et al.  Public-Private Partnerships for E-Government Services: Lessons from Malaysia , 2010 .

[26]  I. Buskens.  Interplay of Institutional Logics and Implications for Deinstitutionalization: Case Study of HMIS Implementation in Tajikistan , 2010 .

[27]  Aneel Karnani,et al.  “Doing Well by Doing Good”: The Grand Illusion , 2010 .

[28]  Anne-Claire Pache,et al.  When Worlds Collide: The Internal Dynamics of Organizational Responses to Conflicting Institutional Demands , 2010 .

[29]  Brian Nicholson,et al.  Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility and Global IT Outsourcing , 2009, MIS Q. Executive.

[30]  Renee Kuriyan,et al.  Outsourcing the State? Public-Private Partnerships and Information Technologies in India , 2009 .

[31]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Social outsourcing as a development tool: The impact of outsourcing IT services to women's social enterprises in Kerala , 2009 .

[32]  Y. Kwak,et al.  Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Development , 2009 .

[33]  David Martimort,et al.  To build or not to build: Normative and positive theories of public-private partnerships , 2008 .

[34]  Wendy L. Currie,et al.  Conflicting institutional logics: a national programme for IT in the organisational field of healthcare , 2007, J. Inf. Technol..

[35]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[36]  Emmanuelle Vaast,et al.  Innovating or Doing as Told? Status Differences and Overlapping Boundaries in Offshore Collaboration , 2008, MIS Q..

[37]  Philip E. T. Lewis,et al.  Research Methods for Business Students , 2006 .

[38]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Doing interpretive research , 2006, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[39]  V. Braun,et al.  Using thematic analysis in psychology , 2006 .

[40]  J. Reijniers.  Organization of public-private partnership projects , 2005 .

[41]  C. K. Prahalad,et al.  The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid , 2004 .

[42]  Nutavoot Pongsiri.  Regulation and Public-Private Partnerships , 2002 .

[43]  Joop Koppenjan,et al.  BUILDING PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: Assessing and managing risks in port development , 2001 .

[44]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  Getting It Together: Temporal Coordination and Conflict Management in Global Virtual Teams , 2001 .

[45]  David J. Silverman,et al.  Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook , 1999 .

[46]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method , 1995 .

[47]  R. Friedland.  Bringing Society Back In : Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions , 1991 .

[48]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  New methods for qualitative data collection and analysis: vignettes and pre‐structured cases , 1990 .

[49]  John e. Jones.  Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument , 1976 .