Rapid advances in technology and increased globalization and competitive pressures have forced many firmsto search for alternatives that will reduce organizational cost, and at the same time create and/or maintaintheir competitive advantage in the global market. In this respect, many firms are turning to global outsourcingas a means of leveraging information technology (IT) for competitive advantage without having to worry aboutfactors like technological obsolescence and skyrocketing IT expenditures. Of course, jumping onto anoutsourcing deal without prior analysis of the situation and the vendor could make the organization worse offthan before. Recent studies and anecdotal evidence point to the fact that even though a ‘watertight’ contractcan absolve the client from many would be problems, the success and outcome of the outsourcing partnershipultimately depends on the management of the relationship. The management of the outsourcing contractbecomes more complicated in cases where the vendor is based in a foreign country (InternationalOutsourcing). The focus of this article is to present a contingency perspective of global IT outsourcingmanagement (vis-a-vis control mechanisms) under various scenarios of the outsourcing context. Additionally,this study identifies a number of future research areas and proposes a direction for future research in the areaof global IT outsourcing management.
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