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For this purpose, we critically examine transaction cost economics and the extant IT outsourcing\/software development outsourcing literature and propose a framework which classifies software development outsourcing transactions according to transaction frequency and transaction investment characteristics. The framework identifies short-term software development outsourcing as an occasional, idiosyncratic transaction. Based on this groundwork, we clarify the concept of short-term contract and put forward that such a transaction is governed by a short-term contract. Following transaction cost economics and control theory, our resulting theoretical considerations infer that for short-term software development outsourcing, the vendor\u2019s high human asset specificity and the resulting behaviour-based outcome control, the monitoring of the developer staff, are the triggers for contract-type decisions. Accordingly, staff monitoring by the client should result in Time &amp; Material contracts, whereas staff monitoring by the vendor should result in Fixed Price contracts. We develop corresponding hypotheses which we test with 468 specific contract records for short-term software development outsourcing. The results confirm the transaction cost economics\u2013based recommendations for contract-type choice. We therefore conclude that the advice of the transaction cost economics to use certain governance structures according to transaction attributes is also applicable to IT outsourcing\/software development outsourcing transactions. We suggest further exploration of specific contract records to substantiate our results. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0268396220967669","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,10]],"date-time":"2020-12-10T19:04:23Z","timestamp":1607627063000},"page":"241-257","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["The contract-type choice for short-term software development outsourcing: The role of behaviour-based formal control"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"36","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7092-938X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cornelia","family":"Gaebert","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Muenster, Germany"}]},{"given":"Karlheinz","family":"Kautz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"RMIT University, Australia"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0268396220967669","volume-title":"Categorical Data Analysis","author":"Agresti A","year":"2013","edition":"3"},{"issue":"5","key":"bibr2-0268396220967669","first-page":"777","volume":"62","author":"Alchian AA","year":"1972","journal-title":"The American Economic Review"},{"key":"bibr3-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1050.0456"},{"key":"bibr4-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5465\/amr.2007.26585739"},{"key":"bibr5-0268396220967669","first-page":"1183","volume-title":"Handbook of Mathematical Economics","author":"Arrow KJ","year":"1986"},{"key":"bibr6-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0263-7863(98)00069-6"},{"key":"bibr7-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.im.2003.09.001"},{"key":"bibr8-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0268396219832010"},{"key":"bibr9-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/0268396032000130214"},{"key":"bibr10-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1162\/003355300554962"},{"key":"bibr11-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.25300\/MISQ\/2016\/40.1.03"},{"key":"bibr12-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5465\/annals.2014.0086"},{"key":"bibr13-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.1070.0166"},{"key":"bibr14-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.25300\/MISQ\/2017\/41.1.07"},{"key":"bibr15-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/25148843"},{"key":"bibr16-0268396220967669","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Eckhard B, Mellewigt T (2006) Contractual functions and contractual dynamics in inter-firm relationships: What we know and how to proceed, University of Paderborn. 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