Factors affecting the performance of mobile office outsourcing An approach using the FORT model and the MoBiS-Q

Abstract

Purpose - A mobile office can be defined as software and hardware that support business work and that are accessible via smartphones. Organizations are adopting or trying to adopt the mobile office as their communication and business tool, in order to support or to change their current work environments The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of outsourcing strategy on mobile office performance based on the FORT model and the MoBiS-Q to measure the performance of the outsourced mobile office. Design/methodology/approach - This study focuses on the impact of outsourcing strategy on mobile office performance based on the FORT model and the MoBiS-Q to measure the performance of the outsourced mobile office. Findings - In the results, the perceived usability and the perceived impact of the mobile office on the productivity can be higher with the Alliance outsourcing relationship type. The outsourcing of the mobile office would follow the similar process of other IT outsourcing strategies. But the device fittingness was far from the expectation. Research limitations/implications - Firms/organizations should consider a more concrete step-by-step approach to strategic outsourcing relationships with the high-skilled expert groups and that the device fittingness may not be a proper factor to measure the performance of the outsourced mobile office. Practical implications - IT managers who plan or now try to adopt the mobile office into their organizations should focus on developing proper applications and software; however, they do not need to care about device or H/W issues, including employees' skills at using the devices or the device fittingness for the planned mobile office. Originality/value - This study is one of the first academic studies to analyze the impact of outsourcing strategy of the mobile office on organization performance.