Intrusion of agent-based social simulation in economic theory: Will heterogeneous agent bring more clarity in the context of IT-outsourcing?

Past research on IT outsourcing has mainly focused on the transaction itself with the use of the Transaction Cost Theory as a primary investigation framework. The notion of asset specificity was blindly accepted in its primary definition, which embodies a bone of contention for many academics due to its looseness of definition. This paper introduces an alternative metric of asset specificity in a qualitative way. It goes down the line of Agent-Based Social Simulation and represents actors of the outsourcing process as heterogeneous agents. This approach is contrary to a widely held perception of economic standard literature with its assumption of homogeneous actors.