Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the reasons behind the intent for information technology (IT) outsourcing in academic institutions in GCC countries. It also aims to develop a multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) to aid the critical decision of IT outsourcing vendor selection. Design/methodology/approach – The research utilizes a questionnaire-based survey to investigate reasons of IT outsourcing intent and the factors considered important for IT outsourcing vendor selection in academic institutions. The results of questionnaire-based study were utilized to develop a grey theory-based MCDM for vendor selection. Findings – The results show that facilitating access to new technology, focus on core-competence, saving staff costs, and improved customer service are the most important factors for IT outsourcing intent while reputation of vendor, access to the state of art technology, quality of service, and knowledge of industry were considered as the most important factors for IT outsourcin...
['Mohd Nishat Faisal', 'Syed Asif Raza']
IT outsourcing intent in academic institutions in GCC countries: An empirical investigation and multi-criteria decision model for vendor selection