Capturing value amidst constant global restructuring? Information technology enabled services in India, the Philippines and Kenya

Laura Mann and Jana Maria Kleibert

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Information-technology-enabled services (ITES) has become a sector of promise for many low- and middle-income economies seeking to leapfrog industrialization and build knowledge-intensive economies. Yet as a sector defined by accelerating processes of commodification and skill elimination, its long-term developmental promise must be carefully scrutinised. Analysing the development of the sector in India, the Philippines and Kenya the paper reveals both the contextual nature of past successful ITES policies and their developmental vulnerabilities. Drawing on literature on industrial policies and global value chains and production networks, the paper critiques the existing policy approaches by arguing that they are largely focussed on enabling value and employment creation and that they pay insufficient attention to questions of value capture and long-term socio-economic transformation.

Keywords: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO); India; Information-Technology-Enabled Services (ITES); Kenya; Services; the Philippines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 N0 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2020-04-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in European Journal of Development Research, 15, April, 2020, 32(4), pp. 1057-1079. ISSN: 0957-8811

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