Having studied key outsourcing trends and outsourcing research, proposed a new perspective on outsourcing and firm performance, elaborated on that perspective in various ways, and sketched some practical guidelines for dealing with outsourcing, we now need to consider the agenda for academic research on outsourcing. This chapter will do just that by looking first at theoretical challenges. Based on the discussion of outsourcing in this book, a number of theoretical challenges have arisen. Each of these will be discussed in turn and then an attempt will be made at providing an integrated answer. Next, some possible extensions will be discussed. Finally, various methodological, methodical, and empirical challenges will be discussed as well.

Theoretical challenges

Economizing and socializing perspectives

As discussed earlier, outsourcing has mostly been viewed as an economizing (Williamson, 1991a) phenomenon in the management literature, whether it is through a transaction cost, resource-based, or other economizing lens. The economizing perspective proposes a set of antecedent variables, primarily transaction and firm conditions, which are supposed to predict governance structures (outsourcing levels). Deviation from these predictions, also called misalignment, is a costly affair. The substantial explanatory power of the economizing perspective for understanding levels of outsourcing was discussed. Yet sole reliance on using this perspective as the holy grail of outsourcing was also critiqued.

A number of specific complements to economizing were proposed that might broadly be categorized under the heading of “socializing.” These included concepts and theories such as organizational inertia, increasing commitment, bandwagoning, and organizational politics.