Internal and External Boundary Spanning in Outsourced IS Development Projects: Opening the Black Box

This study applies the boundary spanning theoretical perspective to a clientbehavior during outsourced IS development projects. Previous research shows the importance of internal communication in an organizationwhen it adopts an integrated IS. It also points tothe importance of managing communication with outsourcingvendor.The proposedresearch makes a unique contribution to the literature by investigating the connection between these two types of communication. The two main questions of the study are how a boundary spanning culture in an organization affects internal and external boundary spanning during an outsourced project, and if a client’s boundary spanning contributes to success of the outsourced project by improving the quality of relationship. Survey based data collection contributes to the methodology of boundary spanning research, which was previously based exclusively on qualitative analysis. Uncovering the implications of client boundary spanning capabilities for outsourcing relationshipmanagementwill be ofsignificant value for practitioners.