Kim Wüllenweber - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kim Wüllenweber

Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by eit... more Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by either academics or practitioners. Recent research on IS outsourcing relationships has addressed the relationship between formal and relational governance, but has not revealed how individual relational factors affect outsourcing risk. Surveying 335 business process outsourcing initiatives, our data supports the separation of an operational, performance-driven approach and an embedded, financial-driven one in order to mitigate risks through relational factors. Our findings show that relationship processes, particularly conflict resolution, are the most important for controlling performance risk, while inherent relationship attributes, such as trust, are the most suitable and promising for managing financial risk. Overall, our findings recommend a more integrated, specific study of contractual and relational governance mechanisms on individual risk and benefit measures.

Information Technology (IT) is a key productive factor in the banking and finance industry (BFI) ... more Information Technology (IT) is a key productive factor in the banking and finance industry (BFI) as almost the entire production and delivery of services can in principle be digitized. Driven by cost pressure and new competitors, outsourcing IT together with the relevant business processes is a promising way to focus on core competencies and to restructure the corporate value chain. While there is a rich literature on the risks and benefits of IT outsourcing, little is known about the next step of business process outsourcing (BPO) and especially the associated risks. Our main hypothesis is that the perceived risks associated with BPO strongly influence managers' intention to outsource business processes. Based on an empirical survey of BFI managers covering 90% of the cumulated German BFI balance sheet, it is shown that perceived risk does indeed have a significant impact on managers' attitudes towards BPO and that these attitudes strongly influence the outsourcing decision...

From the outsourcer’s perspective, the IS outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of con... more From the outsourcer’s perspective, the IS outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contracts and risk awareness for managing outsourcing ventures. However, there is a lack of proven and tested outsourcing management concepts in theory and practise incorporating contractual designs to effectively counter risk. By extending the risk model of Bahli and Rivard (2001) we investigate the influence of risk analysis on contract quality and their interrelation with outsourcing success. Using multiple case studies within the German banking industry our Research-In-Progress paper aims at answering the following questions: (1) ‘How does the contract contribute to outsourcing success from a risk mitigation perspective?’ and (2) ‘How does risk analysis affect the risk mitigation quality of the contract?’. Our research provides insights on how the conduction of a thorough risk analysis can improve contract quality. We show that involving business staff as well as IT staff in an outsourc...

Demand for health oriented products such as sugar free, low calorie and Gluten free products is i... more Demand for health oriented products such as sugar free, low calorie and Gluten free products is increasing. One such trend is to use gluten free flour content in food products to over come health problems such as Autism, Celiac disease (Chronic diarrhea, Abdominal bloating and pain, Chronic constipation) among others. Rice flour and Corn flour as Gluten free source incorporation was used to study its effect on Chemical, and Sensory and Microbiological Characteristics. The Sensory parameters were evaluated for consumer acceptability by using a 9-point hedonic scale and Sensory results found to be Significant (5% level of confidence). In combination of flours, amount of Corn flour was increased as Rice flour decreased fat, ash, Protein content showed an increase on increasing the Corn flour amount. Moisture content in bread were decreased from 52.45, 52.30 to 52.20 and 51.74 respectively. So the 25:75(T3) level of Gluten free flour incorporation was highly acceptable while the other samples were also acceptable.

Ðàññìàòðèâàåòñÿ îäèí èç íàèáîëåå àêòóàëüíûõ âîïðîñîâ îáó÷åíèÿ ðóññêîìó ÿçûêó êàê èíîñòðàííîìó, à ... more Ðàññìàòðèâàåòñÿ îäèí èç íàèáîëåå àêòóàëüíûõ âîïðîñîâ îáó÷åíèÿ ðóññêîìó ÿçûêó êàê èíîñòðàííîìó, à èìåííî: ïðîáëåìà òðóäíîñòåé óïîòðåáëåíèÿ óäàðåíèÿ ïðè îáó÷åíèè ðóññêîé ôîíåòèêå â èðàêñêîé àóäèòîðèè. Îïèðàÿñü íà ñðàâíèòåëüíûé ïðèíöèï, àâòîð àíàëèçèðóåò õàðàêòåðèñòèêè óäàðåíèÿ ðîäíîãî ÿçûêà ó÷àùèõñÿ è ðóññêîãî ÿçûêà ñ öåëüþ âûÿâëåíèÿ òðóäíîñòåé, ñ êîòîðûìè ñòàëêèâàþòñÿ èðàêñêèå ñòóäåíòû ïðè îáó÷åíèè ðóññêîìó ïðîèçíîøåíèþ.

Wirtschaftsinformatik, 2007

Within IS outsourcing research there is an ongoing discussion whether formal contracts and relati... more Within IS outsourcing research there is an ongoing discussion whether formal contracts and relational norms function as substitutes or as complements to each other. However, even those deals which are based on relational norms usually comprise a contract as their foundation. We therefore aim at analyzing differences in contracting between both governance modes (i.e. contract-based or based on relational norms) and exploring their impact on outsourcing satisfaction. Based on a survey with 335 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) deals in the German banking industry we show that clauses on problem resolution are most important in BPO contract design. Furthermore, we find that deals focusing on formal governance put a lot of emphasis on the design of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) whereas deals focusing on relational governance pay special attention to the unambiguousness of outsourcing objectives.

Research on outsourcing governance has focused on two modes: formal governance based on a legally... more Research on outsourcing governance has focused on two modes: formal governance based on a legally binding contract, and relational governance based on a psychological contract between the vendor's relationship manager and the client's project manager. Some researchers argue that the two forms of governance are substitutes for each other. Others model them as complements. Here, we find empirical support for the complementary model and extend it to explain the sequential relationship between formal and relational governance, with relational governance mediating the effect of formal governance on BPO performance. The formal contract is the initial and necessary platform for the outsourcing relationship. If it is well structured, it shapes a good outsourcing relationship, which then supports high BPO performance. The mediated relationship between formal and relational governance extends theory and prior research, which focused on either a substitutive or a complementary relationship between the two forms of governance.

2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07), 2007

Abstract Are standardized business processes less risky to outsource? Despite the importance, of ... more Abstract Are standardized business processes less risky to outsource? Despite the importance, of both areas, neither the outsourcing nor standardization literature has so far offered a conclusive picture of the value of standards to outsourcing. We aim to provide an ...

Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008

Abstract Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understo... more Abstract Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by either academics or practitioners. Recent research on IS outsourcing relationships has addressed the relationship between formal and relational governance, ...

From the outsourcer' s perspective, the outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contr... more From the outsourcer' s perspective, the outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contracts and risk awareness for managing outsourcing ventures. However, there is a lack of theoretical foundation with regard to the importance of risk and contract design towards outsourcing success. By extending the risk model of Bahli and Rivard (2001) we aim at answering the following questions: (1) ' how does the design of the outsourcing contract impact on outsourcing risk?' and (2) ' how, in turn, does outsourcing risk affect outsourcing success?'. Based on multiple case studies of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arrangements, our results show that the ' complementarity' of contract clauses-Service Level Agreements, Penalty-Reward-Systems, and Pricing-is important to contractually implement risk mitigation. Furthermore, by synchronizing the objectives of the in-and outsourcer ex ante resulting in specific contract clauses which compensate for losses ex post, the existence of risk and its impact on outsourcing success can be limited.

Information Systems Frontiers, 2008

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) succ... more What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.

In an ever accelerating world demanding fast adjustment to changing business environments, organi... more In an ever accelerating world demanding fast adjustment to changing business environments, organizational flexibility becomes increasingly important. By outsourcing business processes (BPO), there are both potential flexibility losses (e.g. loss of control) and potential flexibility gains (e.g. the transformation of fixed to variable costs). Firms have to balance this trade-off to retain sufficient flexibility or even enlarge their strategic and operational flexibility. Based on an empirical study with Germany's Top 200 Banks it is shown that the perception of both flexibility gains and losses have a profound impact on the outsourcers' attitude towards BPO. In particular, potential flexibility losses have a higher impact on outsourcers' attitude than potential flexibility gains. Subsequently, in accordance with the theory of reasoned action it turns out that attitude is an antecedent of the intention towards outsourcing. Therefore we argue that flexibility-related issues should be explicitly considered in outsourcing evaluations and service providers should emphasize on contractual means to demonstrate that organizational flexibility will not be negatively affected.

Journal of Electronic Commerce …, 2006

... Heiko Gewald Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am ... more ... Heiko Gewald Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main gewald@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de Kim Wüllenweber Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main wuellenweber@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de ...

Journal of Management Information Systems, 2012

ABSTRACT We examined 335 business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures to understand the effect of ... more ABSTRACT We examined 335 business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures to understand the effect of contractual and relational governance factors on BPO satisfaction from the client's perspective. While both contractual and relational factors explain significant variance in BPO satisfaction, relational factors dominate. By examining interactions between key contractual and relational mechanisms, we found that elements of the two governance approaches operate as substitutes with respect to BPO satisfaction. Specifically, the relational mechanism, trust, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations, goal expectations, and contractual flexibility. Similarly, the relational mechanism, information exchange, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations and goal expectations. Finally, the relational mechanism, conflict resolution, was found to substitute for contractually specified goal expectations. Our results can be applied to more effectively realize controls in outsourcing contexts and to design governance systems that integrate contractual and relational governance mechanisms based on the characteristics of client-vendor relationships.

Information Systems Frontiers, 2008

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) succ... more What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.

Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by eit... more Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by either academics or practitioners. Recent research on IS outsourcing relationships has addressed the relationship between formal and relational governance, but has not revealed how individual relational factors affect outsourcing risk. Surveying 335 business process outsourcing initiatives, our data supports the separation of an operational, performance-driven approach and an embedded, financial-driven one in order to mitigate risks through relational factors. Our findings show that relationship processes, particularly conflict resolution, are the most important for controlling performance risk, while inherent relationship attributes, such as trust, are the most suitable and promising for managing financial risk. Overall, our findings recommend a more integrated, specific study of contractual and relational governance mechanisms on individual risk and benefit measures.

Information Technology (IT) is a key productive factor in the banking and finance industry (BFI) ... more Information Technology (IT) is a key productive factor in the banking and finance industry (BFI) as almost the entire production and delivery of services can in principle be digitized. Driven by cost pressure and new competitors, outsourcing IT together with the relevant business processes is a promising way to focus on core competencies and to restructure the corporate value chain. While there is a rich literature on the risks and benefits of IT outsourcing, little is known about the next step of business process outsourcing (BPO) and especially the associated risks. Our main hypothesis is that the perceived risks associated with BPO strongly influence managers' intention to outsource business processes. Based on an empirical survey of BFI managers covering 90% of the cumulated German BFI balance sheet, it is shown that perceived risk does indeed have a significant impact on managers' attitudes towards BPO and that these attitudes strongly influence the outsourcing decision...

From the outsourcer’s perspective, the IS outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of con... more From the outsourcer’s perspective, the IS outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contracts and risk awareness for managing outsourcing ventures. However, there is a lack of proven and tested outsourcing management concepts in theory and practise incorporating contractual designs to effectively counter risk. By extending the risk model of Bahli and Rivard (2001) we investigate the influence of risk analysis on contract quality and their interrelation with outsourcing success. Using multiple case studies within the German banking industry our Research-In-Progress paper aims at answering the following questions: (1) ‘How does the contract contribute to outsourcing success from a risk mitigation perspective?’ and (2) ‘How does risk analysis affect the risk mitigation quality of the contract?’. Our research provides insights on how the conduction of a thorough risk analysis can improve contract quality. We show that involving business staff as well as IT staff in an outsourc...

Demand for health oriented products such as sugar free, low calorie and Gluten free products is i... more Demand for health oriented products such as sugar free, low calorie and Gluten free products is increasing. One such trend is to use gluten free flour content in food products to over come health problems such as Autism, Celiac disease (Chronic diarrhea, Abdominal bloating and pain, Chronic constipation) among others. Rice flour and Corn flour as Gluten free source incorporation was used to study its effect on Chemical, and Sensory and Microbiological Characteristics. The Sensory parameters were evaluated for consumer acceptability by using a 9-point hedonic scale and Sensory results found to be Significant (5% level of confidence). In combination of flours, amount of Corn flour was increased as Rice flour decreased fat, ash, Protein content showed an increase on increasing the Corn flour amount. Moisture content in bread were decreased from 52.45, 52.30 to 52.20 and 51.74 respectively. So the 25:75(T3) level of Gluten free flour incorporation was highly acceptable while the other samples were also acceptable.

Ðàññìàòðèâàåòñÿ îäèí èç íàèáîëåå àêòóàëüíûõ âîïðîñîâ îáó÷åíèÿ ðóññêîìó ÿçûêó êàê èíîñòðàííîìó, à ... more Ðàññìàòðèâàåòñÿ îäèí èç íàèáîëåå àêòóàëüíûõ âîïðîñîâ îáó÷åíèÿ ðóññêîìó ÿçûêó êàê èíîñòðàííîìó, à èìåííî: ïðîáëåìà òðóäíîñòåé óïîòðåáëåíèÿ óäàðåíèÿ ïðè îáó÷åíèè ðóññêîé ôîíåòèêå â èðàêñêîé àóäèòîðèè. Îïèðàÿñü íà ñðàâíèòåëüíûé ïðèíöèï, àâòîð àíàëèçèðóåò õàðàêòåðèñòèêè óäàðåíèÿ ðîäíîãî ÿçûêà ó÷àùèõñÿ è ðóññêîãî ÿçûêà ñ öåëüþ âûÿâëåíèÿ òðóäíîñòåé, ñ êîòîðûìè ñòàëêèâàþòñÿ èðàêñêèå ñòóäåíòû ïðè îáó÷åíèè ðóññêîìó ïðîèçíîøåíèþ.

Wirtschaftsinformatik, 2007

Within IS outsourcing research there is an ongoing discussion whether formal contracts and relati... more Within IS outsourcing research there is an ongoing discussion whether formal contracts and relational norms function as substitutes or as complements to each other. However, even those deals which are based on relational norms usually comprise a contract as their foundation. We therefore aim at analyzing differences in contracting between both governance modes (i.e. contract-based or based on relational norms) and exploring their impact on outsourcing satisfaction. Based on a survey with 335 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) deals in the German banking industry we show that clauses on problem resolution are most important in BPO contract design. Furthermore, we find that deals focusing on formal governance put a lot of emphasis on the design of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) whereas deals focusing on relational governance pay special attention to the unambiguousness of outsourcing objectives.

Research on outsourcing governance has focused on two modes: formal governance based on a legally... more Research on outsourcing governance has focused on two modes: formal governance based on a legally binding contract, and relational governance based on a psychological contract between the vendor's relationship manager and the client's project manager. Some researchers argue that the two forms of governance are substitutes for each other. Others model them as complements. Here, we find empirical support for the complementary model and extend it to explain the sequential relationship between formal and relational governance, with relational governance mediating the effect of formal governance on BPO performance. The formal contract is the initial and necessary platform for the outsourcing relationship. If it is well structured, it shapes a good outsourcing relationship, which then supports high BPO performance. The mediated relationship between formal and relational governance extends theory and prior research, which focused on either a substitutive or a complementary relationship between the two forms of governance.

2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07), 2007

Abstract Are standardized business processes less risky to outsource? Despite the importance, of ... more Abstract Are standardized business processes less risky to outsource? Despite the importance, of both areas, neither the outsourcing nor standardization literature has so far offered a conclusive picture of the value of standards to outsourcing. We aim to provide an ...

Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008

Abstract Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understo... more Abstract Managing risks in outsourcing has been widely researched but is still not fully understood by either academics or practitioners. Recent research on IS outsourcing relationships has addressed the relationship between formal and relational governance, ...

From the outsourcer' s perspective, the outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contr... more From the outsourcer' s perspective, the outsourcing literature emphasizes the importance of contracts and risk awareness for managing outsourcing ventures. However, there is a lack of theoretical foundation with regard to the importance of risk and contract design towards outsourcing success. By extending the risk model of Bahli and Rivard (2001) we aim at answering the following questions: (1) ' how does the design of the outsourcing contract impact on outsourcing risk?' and (2) ' how, in turn, does outsourcing risk affect outsourcing success?'. Based on multiple case studies of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arrangements, our results show that the ' complementarity' of contract clauses-Service Level Agreements, Penalty-Reward-Systems, and Pricing-is important to contractually implement risk mitigation. Furthermore, by synchronizing the objectives of the in-and outsourcer ex ante resulting in specific contract clauses which compensate for losses ex post, the existence of risk and its impact on outsourcing success can be limited.

Information Systems Frontiers, 2008

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) succ... more What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.

In an ever accelerating world demanding fast adjustment to changing business environments, organi... more In an ever accelerating world demanding fast adjustment to changing business environments, organizational flexibility becomes increasingly important. By outsourcing business processes (BPO), there are both potential flexibility losses (e.g. loss of control) and potential flexibility gains (e.g. the transformation of fixed to variable costs). Firms have to balance this trade-off to retain sufficient flexibility or even enlarge their strategic and operational flexibility. Based on an empirical study with Germany's Top 200 Banks it is shown that the perception of both flexibility gains and losses have a profound impact on the outsourcers' attitude towards BPO. In particular, potential flexibility losses have a higher impact on outsourcers' attitude than potential flexibility gains. Subsequently, in accordance with the theory of reasoned action it turns out that attitude is an antecedent of the intention towards outsourcing. Therefore we argue that flexibility-related issues should be explicitly considered in outsourcing evaluations and service providers should emphasize on contractual means to demonstrate that organizational flexibility will not be negatively affected.

Journal of Electronic Commerce …, 2006

... Heiko Gewald Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am ... more ... Heiko Gewald Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main gewald@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de Kim Wüllenweber Institute of Information Systems Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main wuellenweber@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de ...

Journal of Management Information Systems, 2012

ABSTRACT We examined 335 business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures to understand the effect of ... more ABSTRACT We examined 335 business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures to understand the effect of contractual and relational governance factors on BPO satisfaction from the client's perspective. While both contractual and relational factors explain significant variance in BPO satisfaction, relational factors dominate. By examining interactions between key contractual and relational mechanisms, we found that elements of the two governance approaches operate as substitutes with respect to BPO satisfaction. Specifically, the relational mechanism, trust, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations, goal expectations, and contractual flexibility. Similarly, the relational mechanism, information exchange, was found to substitute for contractually specified activity expectations and goal expectations. Finally, the relational mechanism, conflict resolution, was found to substitute for contractually specified goal expectations. Our results can be applied to more effectively realize controls in outsourcing contexts and to design governance systems that integrate contractual and relational governance mechanisms based on the characteristics of client-vendor relationships.

Information Systems Frontiers, 2008

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) succ... more What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.