The impact of alternative IS acquisition strategies upon IS success

Information systems (IS) managers and developers continually face the problem of deciding among alternative acquisition options: to develop the system in-house, to use a subcontractor, to develop the system jointly among several adopting units, to buy an application package, etc. The question of the relative success of these options is still a controversial issue. This paper puts forward a number of hypotheses concerning the relationship between alternative acquisition options, a set of intervening variables - user participation, originality and complexity of the systems and vendor competence - and IS success. Based on a field study analysing 21 information systems, their acquisition options and their success, it provides some evidence that the acquisition options at the end of in-house development are more successful. Among the intervening variables potentially explaining success, only complexity emerged as important.