关系契约治理与外包合作绩效——对日离岸软件外包项目的实证研究

对日离岸软件外包项目具有典型的关系契约特性,现有文献对软件外包中的关系契约治理及对合作绩效的影响还缺乏系统的理论分析和实证研究。信任、交流和相互适应调整作为重要的关系规范,在对日软件外包关系契约治理中具有重要意义。本研究根据访谈和110个项目的数据实证检验了关系规范对离岸软件外包项目绩效的影响。通过结构方程模型方法发现,交流的有效性对于项目质量和供应商成本控制绩效有积极影响,相互适应调整对于成本控制绩效也有积极影响。这个发现有助于构建有效的关系契约治理机制,促进软件外包产业发展。

Relational Contract Governance and Performance of Outsourcing Collaboration:An Empirical Study of Offshoring Software Outsourcing from Japan

Software outsourcing is of strategic significance for our nation to overcome the environmental bottleneck and resource con-straints. Offshoring software outsourcing from Japanese clients has the typical characteristics of relational contract, for several reasons. For instance, it is difficult to make formal contracts complete partly because it is hard to assess the knowledge input to a project. Fur-thermore, outsourcing in an offshore cross-cultural setting creates extra risks for project deliverables and cost control, while raising the need for intensive collaboration, flexibility, and high quality com-munication. Therefore, important relational norms, such as commu-nication, trust, and inter-firm adaptation, are expected to play a sig-nificant role in offshoring software outsourcing success. However, there exists little prior research on relational contract governance and its impact on the performance of software outsourcing. In this study, a research model was developed based on the literature inter-views with senior managers and developers in several software out-sourcing companies in Beijing and Xi'an. The independent variables include trust, communication, and mutual adaptation; the dependent variables are project quality and cost control. The research model was tested with questionnaire data collected from 110 project man-agers in nine software outsourcing vendors in China. Results show that communication has a positive effect on project quality and cost control for offshore outsourcing projects from Japan. Moreover, inter-firm adaptation has a positive influence on project cost control. However, contrary to our expectation, Chinese vendors' trust in the Japanese clients has no significant effect on project quality, but a negative relationship with cost control. This unexpected result could be due to the asymmetrical relationship between the large-size Japanese clients and relatively smaller Chinese vendors, who have little bargaining power. These findings could be useful for creating effective relational governance mechanisms and strengthening the Chinese offshoring software outsourcing industry.