  This paper advances theory on the process of collaboration between entities
and its implications on the quality of services, information, and/or products
(SIPs) that the collaborating entities provide to each other. It investigates
the scenario of outsourced IS projects (such as custom software development)
where the extent of collaboration between a client and vendor is high. Using
the social exchange theory, the proposed conceptual model tries to establish
the "bidirectional" nature of SIP quality in a collaborative environment, where
the SIPs exchanged are possibly "dependent" on each other, and if any entity
wishes to receive high SIP quality then it should make efforts to provide high
SIP quality in return too. Furthermore, it advocates increasing efforts to link
financial stakes (tangible or intangible monetary benefits or risks) to the
quality of SIP being continuously exchanged throughout the project lifecycle.
