A sustainable ecosystem? Sourcing innovative IT talent in Bulgaria

Abstract

This study addresses the problem of modularising innovative capability along internationally dispersed Global Value Chains (GVCs), which are mediated by human agency embedded in a myriad of contextuallydependent local ecosystems The study focuses on the Bulgarian software sector as an ‘ecosystem’ for IT sourcing activity and builds on the concept of GVCs as global structures, exposed to a mosaic of institutional and socio-economic influences. The study addresses the neglected reality of GVCs’ internal anatomy, which frequently comprises an array of cellular and politically contested social spaces involving interplays of major actors in dispersed home and host contexts. The study adopts a longitudinal qualitative research design, the first phase of which produced four patterns of interaction between the Bulgarian offshored facilities and their MNC parents or partners. Following these findings, four follow-up case studies will be developed as exemplifiers of the configurations delineated during the first phase of the fieldwork.