Differences between public and private IT outsourcing: common themes in the literature

ABSTRACT

Public management philosophies and practices around the world have undergone dramatic reshaping over the last two decades. Political courses on privatization and the wide-scope adoption of information technologies are, undoubtedly, among the most influential factors behind these changes. Scholarly literature devoted to outsourcing of public IT to private vendors, a phenomenon lying at the intersection of the two abovementioned strong trends, is the focus of this paper.

Research of IT outsourcing issues specific to the governmental agencies is represented by few geographically and disciplinary dispersed academic publications. We expect many issues to be shared by public organizations around the world, at least within countries with similar political systems; however, governments employ different mechanisms for funding and control; the scope of restrictions and provision of guidelines vary from country to country. The proposed study reviews a diverse international set of publications in management, IS and public policy fields, while accounting for contextual differences and recognizing the limitations for generalizability. The findings are summarized into two categories -- common identified reasons for public IT outsourcing, and issues and concerns about IT outsourcing that are distinct or significantly different for the public sector.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING
      Subjects: Government

General Terms:
Documentation, Human Factors, Legal Aspects, Management

Keywords:
contracting out, literature review, public IT, public outsourcing, risk management