Volume 3

12 pages 501 K bytes

On Design Science, MCDM, and Outsourcing Decision Making Doncho Petkov Eastern Connecticut State University Willimantic, CT 06226 USA Olga Petkova Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT 06050 USA

Abstract: This paper explores building Information Systems (IS) outsourcing decision models as design science artifacts within the conceptual process framework for carrying out design science research work in IS by Peffers. The design science artifact is developed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach by Saaty. The paper presents a practical AHP model that integrates the findings from the most significant empirical research in IS outsourcing to date with the ideas of MCDM and design science. The need for such an integration is motivated by a disconnect between past AHP applications to outsourcing and previous behavioral IS outsourcing research. The contribution of this paper is that it provides a possible resolution to the disconnect by showing how the conceptual process approach for design science in IS can be used in a framework for integrating MCDM modeling with relevant results from existing empirical IS outsourcing research.

Keywords: Information Systems outsourcing, Design Science, outsourcing decision, AHP, analytic hierarchy process, MCDM, multi-criteria decision making

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Recommended Citation: Petkov and Petkov (2010). On Design Science, MCDM, and Outsourcing Decision Making. Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, 3 (20). http://jisar.org/3/20/. ISSN: 1946-1836. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of CONISAR 2009: §3562. ISSN: 0000-0000.)