Managing I/S design teams: a control theories perspective
Management Science
The role of trust in outsourced IS development projects
Communications of the ACM
GIS for district-level administration in India: problems and opportunities
MIS Quarterly - Special issue on intensive research in information systems
An encounter with grounded theory: tackling the practical and philosophical issues
Qualitative research in IS
Combining IS Research Methods: Towards a Pluralist Methodology
Information Systems Research
Generalizing Generalizability in Information Systems Research
Information Systems Research
Portfolios of Control in Outsourced Software Development Projects
Information Systems Research
Balancing and Rebalancing in the Creation and Evolution of Organizational Control
Organization Science
IT Outsourcing Success: A Psychological Contract Perspective
Information Systems Research
Deploying Common Systems Globally: The Dynamics of Control
Information Systems Research
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Predictors of Formal Control Usage in IT Outsourcing Partnerships
Information Systems Research
A Control Theory Perspective on Agile Methodology Use and Changing User Requirements
Information Systems Research
Control in Internal and Outsourced Software Projects
Journal of Management Information Systems
Journal of Management Information Systems
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While much is known about selecting different types of control that can be exercised in information systems development projects, the control dynamics associated with ISD offshoring projects represent an important gap in our understanding. In this paper, we develop a substantive grounded theory of control balancing that addresses this theoretical gap. Based on a longitudinal case study of an ISD offshoring project in the financial services industry, we introduce a three-dimensional control configuration category that emerged from our data, suggesting that control type is only one dimension on which control configuration decisions need to be made. The other two dimensions that we identified are control degree (tight versus relaxed) and control style (unilateral versus bilateral). Furthermore, we illustrate that control execution during the life cycle of an ISD offshoring project is highly intertwined with the development of client--vendor shared understanding and that each influences the other. Based on these findings, we develop an integrative process model that explains how offshoring project managers make adjustments to the control configuration periodically to allow the ISD offshoring project and relationship to progress, yielding the iterative use of different three-dimensional control configurations that we conceptualize in the paper. Our process model of control balancing may trigger new ways of looking at control phenomena in temporary interfirm organizations such as client--vendor ISD offshoring projects. Implications for research on organizational control and ISD offshoring are discussed. In addition, guidelines for ISD offshoring practitioners are presented.