The Transaction Cost Economics Discourse

Abstract

This chapter presents analysis of the three case studies and five outsourcing contracts from a transaction cost economics (TCE) perspective. The TCE analysis takes place at two levels: in the first level of analysis we focus on the constructs of asset specificity and frequency and assess the predictive power of TCE over the decision to keep the IT activities in-house, outsource using a contract as a tool of governance, or outsource based primarily on relationships. In the second level of analysis we perform a similar assessment, but we also included the construct of uncertainty.