The Embeddedness of Software Development in the Ukraine: An Offshoring Country Perspective

Abstract

Since 2004 there has been an acceleration in offshoring tasks that engender high-level skills. The aim of this article is to examine the offshoring of software development to the Ukraine from the perspective of sender countries. We report the data gathered from interviews with CEOs or senior managers in Europe and the US that offshore software development to the Ukraine. We use a three-fold conceptual framework to analyse the data, which focuses on; structural embeddedness to identify constraining influences; cognitive-cultural embeddedness to examine how firms leverage tacit knowledge and network embeddedness to understand the role of offshoring in wider corporate strategies. We conclude that while offshoring to the Ukraine has brought higher level employment for individuals, territorially and temporally it is weakly embedded.