Barriers to the engagement of Iranian service providers in offshore IT outsourcing

In today's business practice, there is a widespread trend toward offshoringinformation technology services to global companies. Despite the inherent benefitsthat offshore outsourcing offers, there are significant barriers to establishing andmaintaining offshore outsourcing relationships for both clients and service providers.This study particularly focuses on the barriers associated with offshore IToutsourcing from the perspective of Iranian service providers, a point of view that isless explored in the existing literature, which predominantly focuses on customercentricbarriers. Using a library-based approach and a practical, descriptive nature,the research uses an evaluative sampling strategy to collect data from ۶ Iranianservice providers for the Delphi technique and ۹ service providers for the DANPmethod. In three rounds of the Delphi technique, ۱۳ sub-criteria were accepted byexperts. Using the Decision-Making Trial (DEMATEL-based ANP) method, thegiven and received influences for all criteria and sub-criteria were then examinedand prioritized. The results highlight host government stability and intellectualproperty protection as key factors in the provision of IT services, while languagedifferences and the employment of young and inexperienced staff are considered lessimportant compared to other barriers.

Keywords:

Barrier , Service provider , Client , IT Offshoring , Outsourcing