Appropriating IT outsourcing for IT alignment: An adaptive structuration theory perspective

Previous studies on IT alignment have attempted to address if, and how, the presence of IT outsourcing can help attain IT alignment. In this study, we advance the literature by investigating how organizations appropriate IT outsourcing for achieving IT alignment. Specifically, drawing on the adaptive structuration theory (AST), we construct a model examining factors associated with outsourcing appropriation, including consensus of appropriation (COA) and faithfulness of appropriation (FOA), and how the latter are associated with IT alignment. To test our proposed model, we use a questionnaire survey of 170 IT executives working in Chinese firms. Our results indicate that both shared IT affordance for knowledge acquisition and boundary spanning positively affect COA and FOA. Boundary buffering positively affects the FOA, but not the COA. Further, our results also show the positive effects on IT alignment from COA and FOA, and the significant moderating effects of adoption of cloud computing and the non-significant moderating effects of degree of outsourcing in the relationships. Interestingly, the moderating effects of three cloud computing adoption modes (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) on the impact of outsourcing appropriation on IT alignment vary significantly. These findings enrich our understanding towards how to appropriate IT outsourcing for IT alignment and contribute to the literature on IT alignment in IT outsourcing.