The Management of Partnering Development in I/S Outsourcing

The I/S literature reflects an increased interest in outsourcing and partnerships with vendor firms. This paper selects a model of partnership development from the management literature and applies it to I/S partnering. The emphasis is on the manageable aspects of partnership development and the actions that I/S managers can take to speed partnership development and deepen relationships with vendors. Two case studies of I/S partnership development are used to test and illustrate the concepts developed from the model of partnering behaviour.