Abstract
Williamson (1975) treats `markets' and `hierarchies' as two distinct governance structures constituting two discrete categories. For him the prevalence of the one or the other is dependent upon a trade-off between, on the one hand, `transaction' cost and dependence on the market, and the risk of loss of control, on the other. Within this framework, `organization', `markets', `costs', `control', etc. are taken as essences, as objective `facts'. The paper draws on six information technology outsourcing cases to suggest a process-based approach where what things are is determined by their becoming. This becoming-realist perspective directs our attention to the study of the organizing practices involved in constituting organizational aspects. For instance, whereas according to Williamson (1975) `cost' is an objective reflection of a certain value, in the present paper we will see that it is the outcome of a set of reality-constituting practices and principles, of certain ways of seeing and knowing the world, of such mundane practices as categorizing, labelling, measuring, etc.