A New Virtual Global Division of Labour? : Some Lessons from the EMERGENCE Project

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that the widespread introduction of ICTs at a global level is leading to the “death of distance" and the emergence of an autonomous “weightless" new economy. The EU EMERGENCE project carried out empirical research in 18 European countries plus Asia, Australia and North America and concluded that neither of these claims can be justified. However there is strong evidence that a new international division of labour is emerging in business services, based on outsourcing relationships between firms and resulting in increasing geographical diversification as countries and regions compete to fill specific niches in the provision of knowledge-based services