Antecedents of ISD Offshoring Outcomes: Exploring Differences between India and China

Prior research in IS offshoring has highlighted issues in software development projects arising from differences in culture, from status differences and resource inequalities, as well as from asset-related characteristics. Based on Practice Theory and Transaction Cost Economics, we integrate these three perspectives into a single research model explaining the relation between the outcome of offshore ISD projects and cultural, social, and asset-related characteristics of the projects. We substantiate our model with a multiple-case study in two settings in which German companies have offshored ISD projects to India and China. Thereby, we also address a severe drawback of contemporary intercultural IS offshoring research: the neglect of China as the most rapidly growing IS offshoring location at present.