ABSTRACT
The first stage of globalization was characterized by shifting of blue-collar manufacturing jobs from the West to low-cost production centres in developing countries, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, while the cities of the developed world increasingly turned into hubs of white-collar service-sector activities. However, since the late 1980s, further advancement in IT has made possible the outsourcing of lower-order IT-enabled service (ITES) functions to cheaper destinations, like Ireland, the Philippines and India (Dossani and Kenny 2003; Srinivasan and Krueger 2005). Now an integral part of the business models of multinational firms, by 2010, outsourcing of office jobs generated US$106 billion in global revenue, with India accounting for a 55% market share (NAASCOM 2011).
