Determinants of relationship quality for IS/IT outsourcing success in public sector Bobby Swar & Junghoon Moon & Junyoung Oh & Cheul Rhee Published online: 18 December 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Relationship has become an influential aspect for the success of IS/IT outsourcing projects. Although some studies have explored the issues of IS/IT outsourc- ing relationship in the past, these studies are limited to the private sectors. Whereas, studies implicate that the issues related to private and public sectors should be addressed differently. Therefore the main purpose of this study is to examine the IS/IT outsourcing relationship in the public sector by determining relationship quality factors. Based on the social exchange and the relational exchange theories a relationship model is proposed and hypotheses are tested. Ninety three IS/IT outsourcing projects in the public sector of Korea are examined and the results indicate that the outsourcing success is greatly determined by relationship quality. This study will serve as useful guidelines in understanding how to develop a successful IS/IT outsourcing relationships for IT practi- tioners in the public sector and the vendors undertaking those outsourced projects. Keywords IS/IT outsourcing . Relationship quality . IS/IT outsourcing in public sector . Outsourcing success . Social exchange theory . Relational exchange theory 1 Introduction The scope and range of IS/IT outsourcing have become a worldwide phenomenon with the predicted growth from US $184 billion in 2003 to US$256 billion in 2008 (Lin et al. 2007). In both public and private sectors, IS/IT outsourcing is a significant and an increasing practice (Burnes and Anastasiadis 2003). In recent years, IS/IT outsourcing in the public sector has become an accepted management practice and a large percentage of IS/IT projects has been out- sourced (Currie 1996). Despite the growing IS/IT outsourcing trend few organizations report success (Han et al. 2008). Effective management of IT outsourcing continues to be a challenge to organizations today (Koh et al. 2004). As pointed by Sullivan and Ngwenyama (2005), public sector has wit- nessed some of the most stunning IS/IT outsourcing failures and public officials have come under scrutiny for sloppy management of IS/IT outsourcing engagements. Willcocks and Kern (1998) argue that properly structured contract is necessary but not sufficient for outsourcing success. In this B. Swar Global Information and Telecommunication Technology Program, School of Innovation, KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, South Korea e-mail: swarbobby@kaist.ac.kr J. Moon (*) Program in Regional Information, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1 Sillim-dong, Seoul 151-742, South Korea e-mail: moonj@snu.ac.kr J. Oh Department of Management Science, School of Innovation, KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, South Korea e-mail: sechs11@iita.re.kr C. Rhee School of Business, Ajou University, San 5, Woncheon-Dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 443-749, South Korea e-mail: crhee@ajou.ac.kr Inf Syst Front (2012) 14:457–475 DOI 10.1007/s10796-010-9292-7