Congruent patterns of outsourcing capabilities: A bilateral perspective

Despite the extensive proliferation of Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), firms often obtain unsatisfactory outsourcing outcomes due to the lack of appropriate outsourcing capabilities of a client or their vendor. ITO clients strive to enhance outsourcing performance by establishing their own outsourcing capabilities as well as contracting with capable vendors to meet their strategic needs. Thus, for the success of an ITO project, it is imperative to find an effective combination of complementary outsourcing capabilities on both sides. However, knowledge of how to identify and develop a set of appropriate outsourcing capabilities of both client and vendor has yet to be developed. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by elaborating on the configurational mechanisms of outsourcing capabilities from a bilateral perspective, which explicate how multiple types of client and vendor outsourcing capabilities combine into configurations simultaneously to produce high ITO performance. First, based on the ITO literature, we develop a conceptual framework that identifies three key types of outsourcing capabilities. Then, with the matched dataset collected from a client and their vendor, we conduct a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which is a set-theoretic configurational method to investigate the systemic and holistic interdependencies among key outsourcing capabilities that produce high outsourcing performance. On the basis of the conceptual framework and empirical findings, we present four viable propositions to build configurations of client and vendor ITO capabilities that can achieve ITO success with theoretical and practical implications.     

An automated knowledge structure construction approach: Applying information retrieval and genetic algorithm to journal of Expert Systems with Applications

In this study, information retrieval and genetic algorithm are integrated to propose a new knowledge structure construction method and this method is further applied to the papers published on the journal of Expert Systems with Applications (ESWA). The purpose of this method is to explore the major topics as well as the related techniques and methods of the papers published in various periods of time and help understand the research tendencies among these published papers. We use vector space model to present the published papers and feature and adopt chi-square test to examine the independence of topics. Then we apply genetic algorithm to facilitate automatic topic selections used to construct the knowledge structures for the journal in study.We select ESWA as the source of samples mainly because the papers published on this journal feature an extensive use of methods and techniques and have been widely applied in many domains. Moreover, it is also a SCI listed journal. In recent years, more and more outstanding scholars have published their papers on this journal, so citation of the papers on this journal by other papers is frequent. It can be viewed as an internationally prominent journal.In our experiment, knowledge structures are constructed and analyzed. The representativeness of the selected topics and whether published papers have been classified into appropriate topics are also evaluated. From the experimental results, we discover that the constructed knowledge structures could not only effectively present representative topics, related techniques and issues, but also help understand the research tendencies.     

Strategic innovation through outsourcing – A theoretical review

Competition in the Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is increasingly moving from being motivated by cost savings towards strategic benefits that service providers can offer to their clients. Innovation is one such benefit that is expected nowadays in outsourcing engagements. The rising importance of innovation has been noticed and acknowledged not only in the Information Systems (IS) literature, but also in other management streams such as innovation and strategy. However, to date, these individual strands of research remain largely isolated from each other. Our theoretical review addresses this gap by consolidating and analyzing research on strategic innovation in the ITO and BPO context. The article set includes 95 papers published between 1998 and 2020 in outlets from the IS and related management fields. We craft a four-phase framework that integrates prior insights about (1) the antecedents of the decision to pursue strategic innovation in outsourcing settings; (2) arrangement options that facilitate strategic innovation in outsourcing relationships; (3) the generation of strategic innovations; and (4) realized strategic innovation outcomes, as assessed in the literature. We find that the research landscape to date is skewed, with many studies focusing on the first two phases. The last two phases remain relatively uncharted. We also discuss how innovation-oriented outsourcing insights compare with established research on cost-oriented outsourcing engagements. Finally, we offer directions for future research.     

基于DBScan算法的研究群体挖掘

引文网络体现了文献研究内容上的相关性及知识的传递,包含了大量的研究关联性信息,被广泛地用于对文章重要性进行鉴定.但当前缺少一种在引文网络基础上识别研究群体的方法.为寻找具有相关研究的作者群体,首先研究文献之间的引用关系,建立基于引文路径的引文分析模型,最后构造相关性指标并利用DBScan算法对引文网络进行聚类.通过对文章间关联强度的定义,运用聚类方法挖掘出学术研究群体,实现了一种新颖、且复杂度较低的研究群体识别方法.     

直觉模糊研究的知识结构及知识流动分析

为了全面分析直觉模糊领域的研究概况、知识结构、知识扩散路径以及活跃研究子领域,基于主路径方法,结合知识图谱工具,对中国知网(CNKI)数据库中收录的与直觉模糊研究相关的文献进行系统分析.研究结果表明:直觉模糊领域已进入成熟阶段,且2007年与2014年的研究成果受到了广泛关注;从直觉模糊领域的知识结构看,直觉模糊集合、...     

A review of the IT outsourcing literature: Insights for practice

This paper reviews research studies of information technology outsourcing (ITO) practice and provides substantial evidence that researchers have meaningfully and significantly addressed the call for academics to produce knowledge relevant to practitioners. Based on a review of 191 IT outsourcing articles, we extract the insights for practice on six key ITO topics relevant to practitioners. The first three topics relate to the early 1990s focus on determinants of IT outsourcing, IT outsourcing strategy, and mitigating IT outsourcing risks. A focus on best practices and client and supplier capabilities developed from the mid-1990s and is traced through to the late 2000s, while relationship management is shown to be a perennial and challenging issue throughout the nearly 20 years under study. More recently studies have developed around offshore outsourcing, business process outsourcing and the rise, decline and resurrection of application service provision. The paper concludes by pointing to future challenges and developments.     

引文网络的研究现状及其发展综述

随着现代信息技术的发展,文献著作数量迅速增加,引文网络已经形成了一个超大规模的复杂网络系统,并吸引了越来越多的关注。首先分析引文网络研究的发展,探讨该研究领域的现状及其价值。在此基础上,按照研究目的将引文网络的研究分为学术评价指标优化、引文网络中社会群体分析、引文网络知识流挖掘以及引文数据源分析抽取技术等方面,并对每类研究进行分析。最后,总结目前引文网络研究存在的问题和主要应用领域,对引文网络的研究趋势及应用前景作了展望。     

An assessment of the use of Transaction Cost Theory in information technology outsourcing

Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) has been widely used in information technology outsourcing (ITO) research to explain and predict outsourcing decisions and outsourcing-related outcomes. This research, however, has led to mixed and unexpected results in terms of the effects of transaction attributes on outsourcing decisions and outcomes. This study assesses the empirical literature employing TCT-based ITO models in terms of its faithfulness to the precepts of TCT, and argues that one possible explanation for the mixed results is that the extant models do not capture all the essential elements of TCT. First, there are core TCT constructs that the extant models do not take into account; second, the linkages among constructs that the IT outsourcing models have hypothesized are not always in line with TCT precepts; and third, the normative nature of the theory is not always captured by the extant models. This paper, therefore, aims to provide one possible answer to the question: “Why have the appropriations made of TCT to study IT outsourcing produced mixed results?”     

Web log analysis: a review of a decade of studies about information acquisition,inspection and interpretation of user interaction

In the last decade, the importance of analyzing information management systems logs has grown, because log data constitute a relevant aspect in evaluating the quality of such systems. A review of 10 years of research on log analysis is presented in this paper. About 50 papers and posters from five major conferences and about 30 related journal papers have been selected to trace the history of the state-of-the-art in this field. The paper presents an overview of two main themes: Web search engine log analysis and Digital Library System log analysis. The problem of the analysis of different sources of log data and the distribution of data are investigated.     

Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know,what we still need to know,and how we can get there

The business value of investments in Information Systems (IS) has been, and is predicted to remain, one of the major research topics for IS researchers. While the vast majority of research papers on IS business value find empirical evidence in favour of both the operational and strategic relevance of IS, the fundamental question of the causal relationship between IS investments and business value remains partly unexplained. Three research tasks are essential requisites on the path towards addressing this epistemological question: the synthesis of existing knowledge, the identification of a lack of knowledge and the proposition of paths for closing the knowledge gaps. This paper considers each of these tasks. Research findings include that correlations between IS investments and productivity vary widely among companies and that the mismeasurement of IS investment impact may be rooted in delayed effects. Key limitations of current research are based on the ambiguity and fuzziness of IS business value, the neglected disaggregation of IS investments, and the unexplained process of creating internal and competitive value. Addressing the limitations we suggest research paths, such as the identification of synergy opportunities of IS assets, and the explanation of relationships between IS innovation and change in IS capabilities.     

Software stories: three cultural perspectives on the organizational practices of software development

Postindustrial organizations have come to depend upon the steady production and modification of software products to meet their competitive needs. This study reports insights into software development practices that were revealed through a cultural interpretation of organizational stories told by members of SWC, a company engaged in software development. Through interviews with 38 members of SWC, 83 stories were extracted and analyzed to identify their main themes. By grouping these content themes, we produced nine broader cultural themes that represented the organization's cultural context. Two management practices applied in SWC—development team organization and outsourcing—were subjected to an analysis in which cultural themes were interpreted from each of three perspectives proposed by Martin, J. [(1992) Cultures in Organisations; Three Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press]: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation.The interpretation provides a rich reading of SWC's cultural context. Despite management attempts to develop a unified culture based on collaboration and communication among development groups, the team approach to software development was problematic. Imposing teamwork upon groups that manifested distinct subcultural differences disturbed the work life of group members, and the change was only partially successful. SWC's management also sought survival and tighter strategic focus through an outsourcing arrangement. However, our interpretation identified significant difficulties created by the partnership between two organizations with very different cultures. The presence of the outsourcing partner also brought greater uncertainty and ambiguity because work priorities and practices were subject to constant renegotiation. Members from both organizations dealt with contradictions between their previous norms, values and work practices and those required by the new relationship.Overall, our analysis demonstrates the importance of understanding the cultural foundation of management practices used in software development. These practices evoke interpretations from members of a culture, who collectively redefine what might have been intended. A cultural analysis may prepare management to move more gradually or to introduce special approaches to managing change.     

一种面向生产系统的控制流异常检测算法

目前,针对生产系统的入侵攻击行为朝着规模化、分布化、复杂化等方向演变,传统的基于漏洞库、病毒库、规则匹配等被动式防护手段难以应付隐藏在生产系统内部的攻击行为。从生产系统的业务程序控制流出发,提出了一种基于路径匹配的生产系统控制流异常检测算法CFCPM。首先提出了一种基于关键路径匹配的基本组划分方法,通过扩大控制流分析的基本研究单元,降低了断言标签式控制流分析方法对系统运行造成的性能负担;然后,分别介绍了CFCPM算法的标准路径集获取阶段和路径匹配阶段,通过判断当前控制流路径是否偏离标准路径集,察觉生产系统所处的异常工作状态。最后,通过异常检测能力分析证明了该算法对业务程序控制流异常检测的有效性。     

一种改进的程序可达基路径生成方法

考虑程序中分支冲突和异常处理结构对控制流信息的影响,提出一种改进的程序可达基路径生成方法。分析不可达路径产生的原因及其判定方法,构建异常控制流图。在此基础上计算相关分支之间的关系,利用深度优先遍历方法得到程序的可达基路径集。实例分析结果表明,该方法能准确生成可达基路径集,满足基路径测试的要求。     

An Experimental Study of Internet Path Diversity

Several research studies have been devoted to improving the reliability and performance of the Internet by utilizing redundant communication paths between end points. Multihoming, coupled with intelligent route control, and overlay networks are two main streams in this area of research which attempt to leverage redundant connections of the Internet for increased reliability and performance. However, the effectiveness of these approaches depends on the natural diversity of redundant paths between two endhosts in terms of physical links, routing infrastructure, administrative control, and geographical distribution. Even in the case of redundant paths, if traffic between two hosts is not actually routed along completely disjoint paths, congestion or failure of a single shared link or router can adversely affect the end-to-end performance or availability of all paths. This paper presents an experimental study of path diversity on the Internet, focusing on the impact of path diversity on multihomed and overlay networks. We base our analysis on traceroutes and routing table data collected from several vantage points in the Internet including: looking glasses at 10 major Internet service providers (ISPs), RouteViews servers from 20 ISPs, and more than 50 PlanetLab nodes globally distributed across the Internet. Using this data, we quantify the extent of path diversity in multihoming and overlay networks, highlighting the limitations, and also identifying the source of the limitations in these architectures. From the analysis, we learn that both multihoming route control and current overlay networks are not able to ensure path diversity, which makes it very difficult to provide high-availability services even with the use of these systems. We believe that this work provides the insight into building future systems based on understanding path diversity     

Automatic extraction of citation information in Japanese patent applications

The need for academic researchers to retrieve patents and research papers is increasing, because applying for patents is now considered an important research activity. However, retrieving patents using keywords is a laborious task for researchers, because the terms used in patents for the purpose of enlarging the scope of the claims are generally more abstract than those used in research papers. Therefore, we have constructed a framework that facilitates patent retrieval for researchers, and have integrated research papers and patents by analysing the citation relationships between them. We obtained cited research papers in patents using two steps: (1) detection of sentences containing bibliographic information, and (2) extraction of bibliographic information from those sentences. To investigate the effectiveness of our method, we conducted two experiments. In the experiment involving Step 1, we prepared 42,073 sentences, among which a human subject manually identified 1,476 sentences containing citations of papers. For Step 2, we prepared 3,000 sentences, in which the titles, authors, and other bibliographic information were manually identified. We obtained a precision of 91.6%, and a recall of 86.9% in Step 1, and a precision of 86.2% and a recall of 85.1% in Step 2. Finally, we constructed an information retrieval system that provided two methods of retrieving research papers and patents. One method was retrieval by query, and another was from the citation relationships between research papers and patents.     

A meta-analysis of e-learning technology acceptance: The role of user types and e-learning technology types

Existing literature in the field of e-learning technology acceptance reflects a significant number of independent studies that primarily investigate the causal relationships proposed by technology acceptance theory, such as the technology acceptance model (TAM). To synthesize the existing knowledge in the field of e-learning technology acceptance, we have conducted a systematic literature review of 42 independent papers, mostly published in major journals. Furthermore, in order to view the research context by combining and analyzing the quantitative results of the reviewed research studies, a meta-analysis of the causal effect sizes between common TAM-related relationships was conducted. The main findings of this study, which is the first of its kind, are: (1) TAM is the most-used acceptance theory in e-learning acceptance research, and (2) the size of the causal effects between individual TAM-related factors depends on the type of user and the type of e-learning technology. The results of the meta-analysis demonstrated a moderating effect for user-related factors and technology-related factors for several evaluated causal paths. We have gathered proof that the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness tend to be the factors that can influence the attitudes of users toward using an e-learning technology in equal measure for different user types and types of e-learning technology settings.     

Multiple paths extraction in images using a constrained expanded trellis

Single shortest path extraction algorithms have been used in a number of areas such as network flow and image analysis. In image analysis, shortest path techniques can be used for object boundary detection, crack detection, or stereo disparity estimation. Sometimes one needs to find multiple paths as opposed to a single path in a network or an image where the paths must satisfy certain constraints. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to extract multiple paths simultaneously within an image using a constrained expanded trellis (CET) for feature extraction and object segmentation. We also give a number of application examples for our multiple paths extraction algorithm.     

Investigations about replication of empirical studies in software engineering: A systematic mapping study

ContextTwo recent mapping studies which were intended to verify the current state of replication of empirical studies in Software Engineering (SE) identified two sets of studies: empirical studies actually reporting replications (published between 1994 and 2012) and a second group of studies that are concerned with definitions, classifications, processes, guidelines, and other research topics or themes about replication work in empirical software engineering research (published between 1996 and 2012).ObjectiveIn this current article, our goal is to analyze and discuss the contents of the second set of studies about replications to increase our understanding of the current state of the work on replication in empirical software engineering research.MethodWe applied the systematic literature review method to build a systematic mapping study, in which the primary studies were collected by two previous mapping studies covering the period 1996–2012 complemented by manual and automatic search procedures that collected articles published in 2013.ResultsWe analyzed 37 papers reporting studies about replication published in the last 17 years. These papers explore different topics related to concepts and classifications, presented guidelines, and discuss theoretical issues that are relevant for our understanding of replication in our field. We also investigated how these 37 papers have been cited in the 135 replication papers published between 1994 and 2012.ConclusionsReplication in SE still lacks a set of standardized concepts and terminology, which has a negative impact on the replication work in our field. To improve this situation, it is important that the SE research community engage on an effort to create and evaluate taxonomy, frameworks, guidelines, and methodologies to fully support the development of replications.     

John McCarthy's legacy

This special issue is dedicated to John McCarthy, founding father of Artificial Intelligence. It contains a collection of recent contributions to the field of knowledge representation and reasoning, a field that McCarthy founded and that has been a main focus of his research during the last half century. In this introductory article, we survey some of McCarthy's major contributions to the field of knowledge representation and reasoning, and situate the papers in this special issue in the context of McCarthy's previous work.