IT OUTSOURCING PARTNERSHIPS IN BULGARIA: STRATEGIC ORIENTATION

IT outsourcing is among the prevalent practices in the global business today. It is found that business organizations decide to transfer such kind of services to other firms (identified as “vendors”) mainly because of cost-related advantages. It is still not clear whether the vendors are able to provide comparative advantages from the point of view of economizing costs of the production of these services. The objective of this paper is to identify the main determinants affecting the success of IT outsourcing partnership in Bulgaria on the basis of empirical study. The paper presents selected results from a survey of the outsourcing relations between Bulgarian vendor organizations and their clients (outsourcers) considering the issues of the development of successful strategic partnerships in outsourcing practices. In 2008 an empirical survey of outsourcing partnerships in 28 organizations providing high technology services has been conducted based on cases of Bulgarian vendor organizations. The subject of the study was the analysis of the key determinants influencing the formation and development of strategic outsourcing partnerships between Bulgarian vendor organizations and their clients (foreign companies).