A Two-Sided Perspective on Supplier Dependence in IS Outsourcing Dyads

Whilst client dependence on an IT supplier is already a well-known risk in IS outsourcing relationships, investigations of the supplier side of dependence have been largely neglected. This contradicts traditional dependence research, which suggests to incorporate the respective dependence of both parties in a bilateral exchange relationship. This paper attempts to close this research gap and investigates supplier dependence in five outsourcing relationships with two-sided data. Furthermore, it proposes a conceptualization of supplier dependence and applies two central dyadic constructs from reference disciplines, namely relative and joint dependence, on IS outsourcing relationships.