Follow the Pack or Make an Independent Decision? How Environmental Turbulence Affects ICT Sourcing Decisions

Since market and environmental conditions are becoming increasingly turbulent, ICT sourcing alternatives (such as colocation) have gained considerable attention in the industry since they allow firms to become more agile and responsive to environmental changes and increasing competition. However, little research has been conducted to analyze how different factors affect ICT sourcing decisions in the light of uncertainty arising from environmental turbulence. Since uncertainty and unpredictability of environmental changes might lead to mimicry of successful business strategies, this article focuses on the analysis of how uncertainty resulting from environmental turbulence leads to an imitative ICT adoption behavior of firms. Based on a multi-method research approach, we applied a Delphi study and a quantitative field study. The empirical results support our hypothesis that turbulent environmental conditions lead to mimetic adoption behavior, thus providing a theoretical contribution to the extant literature