ABSTRACT
The IT sector is a fascinating case for research on delocalization not only because the information sector has been the most rapidly developing part of the economy for the last few years, but also because it was the first where offshore outsourcing was for well-paid white-collar jobs. It was also the first of services to be delocalized in spite of the traditional view that services are characterized by unity of production and place of consumption. This condition no longer applies, as the place has become virtual due to advances in telecommunications and the Internet. Unlike workers in other labour-intensive sectors, those who work in IT have to be highly skilled and well educated (Arora and Gambardella 2005). Competitiveness in the software industry is not based on productivity or even quality, but on ideas and design; therefore, the software industry is sometimes called the ‘industry of the mind’ (Florida et al. 2003).
