• This article analyses the Information Systems (IS) literature on sports digitalization from a stakeholder perspective. • We show that little attention has so far been given to non-competing stakeholders (e.g., managers, referees, spectators) and to understanding the behavioural impact of digitalisation on stakeholders during competitions. • Past studies have focused on analysing the effect of a single digitalisation solution on a single stakeholder. • We highlight three directions to advance IS research on sports digitalization by focusing on the eco-system of sports stakeholders, the use of naturalistic reality images as a data source, and the blending of borrowed (behavioural and cognitive) theories. In this theoretical review, we analyse the IS literature on the rapidly evolving strategic phenomenon of sports digitalisation . We provide insights on how sports digitalisation is currently understood in the IS literature when examined from a stakeholder perspective. Our analysis identifies the key stakeholders involved in sports, the competition stages (i.e., before, during, or after), the nature of digitalisation in sports, and the key outcomes on which the literature focuses (behavioural, cognitive, and performance-related). Our analysis also points out several gap areas in the extant literature: the lack of attention paid to non-competing stakeholders (e.g., managers, referees, spectators) and the behavioural impact of digitalisation on stakeholders during competitions; and the current focus on analysing the effect of a single digitalisation solution on a single stakeholder. Building on these findings, we propose three future directions to advance research on sports digitalisation. First, future research needs to examine the effect of digitalisation on an eco-system of sports stakeholders. Second, the use of naturalistic reality images as a data source would enhance research during competition. Last, future studies need to consider the blending of borrowed (behavioural and cognitive) theories and novel digitally-enhanced concepts to strengthen the theoretical foundations of sports digitalisation in Information Systems.

• Information systems multisourcing requires mechanisms that ensure both competition and cooperation. • Multisourcing arrangements may fruitfully combine cooperation-enhancing and competition-enhancing mechanisms if the mechanisms are of the same type (force versus emergent). • Conversely, the coexistence of forced and emergent mechanisms, which rely on economic versus social logics, can result in substitution effects. This paper examines the effect of forced and emergent competition- and cooperation-enhancing mechanisms on joint multisourcing performance. We draw on research on coopetition in IS multisourcing and the literature on the crowding-out effect to theorise the interplay between these mechanisms. We argue that the key to understanding whether these mechanisms complement or substitute each other lies in the distinction between forced and emergent mechanisms, as these respectively invoke either an economic or a social logic among vendors. We test these ideas through a survey study of 108 multisourcing arrangements. Our results show that while a forced competition and an emergent cooperation mechanism can individually improve joint performance in multisourcing, the co-existence of economic and social logics results in a substitutional effect. A complementary effect is achieved when competition and cooperation mechanisms are of the same logic. Our study extends the existing IS outsourcing literature by shedding light on the role of forced and emergent mechanisms, either as competition or cooperation-enhancing, in enhancing multisourcing performance.

• The paper examines how client firms sustained performance during a systemic crisis. • The paper conceptualises sustaining performance in outsourcing as two logics derived from the extant literature: internal capabilities and the externalisation of services. • Using a configurational approach, the paper offers 6 logics that explain sustaining total outsourcing performance, revenue, service continuity and vendor relationships during a systemic crisis. • The paper highlights the critical role of internal capabilities in sustaining outsourcing performance during a systemic crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic set off a systemic crisis that spread rapidly across the globe in early 2020, significantly affecting the outsourcing industry. Information Technology (IT) vendors as well as client firms found it challenging to maintain their performance levels. The Information Systems (IS) outsourcing literature, notably, had little insight to offer to client firms about effective IT outsourcing strategies for a systemic crisis. However, the literature did discuss two distinct yet interconnected logics for understanding IT outsourcing performance in non-crisis contexts. Whereas one logic revolves around the possession of strong internal capabilities, the other centers on the externalization of services. Building on this work, we develop a conceptual model to guide a configurational analysis centering on the sustenance of IT outsourcing performance during a systemic crisis. Based on the findings emerging from a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 200 companies across 13 countries, we theorize six organizational logics that client firms can consider to sustain IT outsourcing performance. These logics entail different combinations or configurations of client-firms’ IT outsourcing characteristics and the characteristics of the crisis faced. As systemic crises can engender more or less intense uncertainty, thus affecting the strategic options available to decisions makers, we also use our findings to theorize organizational logics that can enable performance sustenance during low, medium, and high severity crises. We discuss our research’s contributions to the IS outsourcing literature as well as its practical implications.

Unlike emergent brokers, formal brokers are appointed to mediate information exchanges in a highly structured setting. While the use of formal brokers has increased, particularly in globally distributed work, the extant literature has so far paid little attention to the information brokering challenges faced by formal brokers. Our case analysis revealed that, despite the structured setting, information users often bypass the broker and exchange information directly, also known as a workaround, thus disrupting the brokering process. In this scenario, the broker is displaced and is not able to broker. Interestingly, our findings suggest that the formal broker does not necessarily reassume their brokering role once workarounds are detected. Instead, the formal broker first assesses the conditions that led to the workarounds and their impact (positive or negative) on the information exchange network. Should the impact be negative, the formal broker regains their brokering role by deploying protecting actions. However, a positive impact on the information exchange network allows the broker to maintain a nonbrokering position, thus passively allowing connecting actions to resume. We describe three practices that formal brokers pursue when workarounds are present and conclude by outlining the contributions to research and practice.

Traditionally, the main focus of the information system (IS) literature has been on technical aspects related to system development projects. Furthermore, research in the IS field has mainly focused on co-located project teams. In this respect, social aspects involved in IS projects were neglected or scarcely reported. To fill this gap, this paper studies the contribution of social ties and knowledge sharing to successful collaboration in distributed IS development teams. Data were drawn from two successful globally distributed system development projects at SAP and LeCroy. Data collected were codified using Atlas.ti software. The results suggest that human-related issues, such as rapport and transactive memory, were important for collaborative work in the teams studied. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for theory and suggesting a practical guide to enhance collaborative work in globally distributed teams.