Everywhere and nowhere: nearshore software development in the context of globalisation

Abstract

Offshore software development has been identified as one of the most striking manifestations of contemporary globalisation and as evidence of placelessness, the idea that information and communication technologies have rendered location irrelevant. Research in the International Business and Information Systems fields, in contrast, has suggested that all locations are not equal and has identified a number of characteristics that may influence the attractiveness of a location for multinational investment and offshoring, respectively. These literatures, however, focus almost exclusively on quantitative, economic characteristics that are seen as fixed and applying uniformly throughout a whole country. They therefore offer little guidance on the suitability of particular locations as offshoring destinations, especially in countries without a track record in offshore software development. Drawing on two cases of nearshore software development centres set up by offshore service providers in the Caribbean, this paper illustrates that, while the initial decision to establish the ventures reflected a logic of placelessness, characteristics of these particular locations affected their subsequent success. Through the findings, we therefore develop a typology of espoused, unanticipated and remediable locational characteristics, which illustrates that locational attractiveness may vary significantly within countries and that offshore service providers and government agencies can modify locational characteristics to their advantage.

Keywords:

• globalisation
• offshore outsourcing
• nearshore outsourcing
• software development
• location
• placelessness

This paper is based on a conference paper of the same name as referenced below: Abbott, P. and Jones, M.R. (2007) Everywhere and nowhere: nearshore software development in the context of globalisation, in Second International Conference on Management of Globally Distributed Work, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, 25–27 July.

This paper is based on a conference paper of the same name as referenced below: Abbott, P. and Jones, M.R. (2007) Everywhere and nowhere: nearshore software development in the context of globalisation, in Second International Conference on Management of Globally Distributed Work, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, 25–27 July.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pamela Y Abbott

About the authors

Dr. Pamela Abbott is a lecturer at Brunel University, London, U.K. Her research interests include the suitability of specific locations for software and services outsourcing, strategies for software and services export in developing countries, the role that distance plays in managing offshore working arrangements and the relationship between context (cultural, socio-political) and the development of client–supplier relationships. One of her major articles is published in the prestigious management journal, Communications of the ACM, and looks at the phenomenon of nearshoring. She has both international research and teaching experience, having worked as an academic in the Irish Republic at the University College Dublin Business School and developed a curriculum based on offshore outsourcing. Within the last 3 years she has been leading an international collaborative research project with the U.K.- and China-based researchers investigating the competitive strategies employed by Chinese IT service provider firms. Prior to her academic career she worked as a software quality analyst with an offshoring service provider in the Caribbean, her native home.

Matthew R Jones

Matthew R. Jones is a University lecturer in Information Management at the Judge Business School and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He previously held postdoctoral positions at the University of Reading and the University of Cambridge where he was involved in the development of computer-based models for public policy decision-making. His current research interests are concerned with the relationship between information systems and social and organisational change and theoretical and methodological issues in information systems research.