In the present article, Barthelemy and Geyer (2005) examine factors that affect outsourcing and quasi-outsourcing decision in French and German companies. The concept of quasi-outsourcing is used to describe the situation in which a firm established its own IT subsidiary instead of signing a contract with a third party. IT outsourcing, in its turn, refers to the case when a company used the services provided by a vendor to solve IT issues. The authors conclude that such factors as institutional environment, the internal organization of IT, its size, and asset specificity determine the choice of quasi- and outsourcing decisions. The results of the study of Barthelemy and Geyer (2005) are based on the quantitative analysis of the answers that were received from 160 senior IT managers from German and French companies. It is curious to notice that the scholars sent their questionnaires to 500 businesses located in France and 500 businesses located in Germany. However, it should be noted that out of 1000 questionnaires that were sent, only 160 were completed. This point raises a question about the representativeness of the sample and the quality and reliability of the conducted study.
References
Barthelemy, J., & Geyer, D. (2005). An empirical investigation of IT outsourcing versus outsourcing in France and Germany. Information & Management, 42, 533-542. doi:10.1016/j.im.2004.02.005