The purpose of this paper is to design a conceptual model of institutional elements for the building of a client-supplier strategic partnership in IT outsourcing, involving an ERP system licensing. This model resulted from a case study in a Brazilian transnational bank, which is one of the 10 largest American banks in terms of assets volume. Qualitative content analysis technique evaluated the data collected from interviews, documents, and observations. The results show the importance of a multidimensional institutional perspective with a set of regulative, normative, and cognitive elements to structure a client-supplier partnership. The data analysis confirmed elements predefined in the theory developed, as well as identified new ones.
Offshore IT outsourcing; strategic partnership; ERP system; institutional theory
