eOutsourcing as an instrument of flexible specialisation: eWork in Southern Europe

The European Union brings together many highly diverse economic regions; researchers have often found that attempting to generalise at a European level is a risky business. In particular, it is dangerous to assume that the Mediterranean countries necessarily share the economic characteristics of the Northern European countries with their earlier-established industrial base. Another new report from EMERGENCE focuses specifically on the development of eWork in Southern Europe, drawing together the results of the EMERGENCE European employer survey and case studies with a review of the evidence from other sources. The report was produced by IRES, in Italy, with inputs from CIREM in Spain and Valter Fissamber Associates in Greece. In the analysis of the survey results, two lines of inquiry were followed, based on a new series of analyses of the data. The first aimed at integrating the national and sector dimensions of the distribution of eWork, in order to compare the performance of the various country groups in Europe.

Giovanna Altieri, IRES   Lorenzo Birindelli, IRES

The second phase of the analysis examined eWork practice in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Through a procedure of comparative analysis of the main interpretative variables of eWork, similarities and differences in operative behaviour were identified between each of the four countries. This analysis of eService practice was then used as the basis for an interpretation of the strategic use of eWork by companies in Southern Europe and an identification of the development opportunities for this new type of work.

eWork practice in Southern Europe has several distinctive features when compared with the rest of Europe:

• Southern European countries, with the exception of Portugal, demonstrate a diffusion of eWork higher than the European average.

• This result seems to be balanced both for sector and company size, with no particular differences between the countries.

• The functions in which eWork is most prevalent are software and creative activities.

• The form of eWork most commonly found in Southern Europe is outsourced eServices; remote eEmployment is relatively low.

• This high propensity to outsource provides an important explanation of the relatively high diffusion of eWork in the Southern Mediterranean Countries.

• The main objective of eOutsourcing is to exploit technical specialisation in order to raise quality in the delivery of the business function in question.

• When seeking suppliers for outsourced eServices, only a small minority of companies turn to foreign partners and/or individuals who are not organised in a company.

The next phase of analysis attempted to explain this similarity of behaviour in the four countries (despite significantly diverse factorial advantages) and concluded that the most likely reason is the strategic opportunity that eWork offers in creating networked organisations. The report argues that remote connection can be a strategic lever for highly fragmented economic systems, because it brings about better rationalisation, integration and specialisation of the networked units. This is especially the case for countries outside the old industrial European core, characterised by the partial and/or delayed assimilation of the Fordist organisational model (ie, countries in the Mediterranean), that seem most capable of taking advantage of this opportunity.

The report also includes brief background reports on each of the countries concerned, providing contextual information on the development of ICTs in the national economy.

It concludes that the Southern European Countries do not have a lead in ICT (although they are recovering rapidly from previous backwardness) so the high diffusion of eWork in these countries cannot be explained by technological advantage. The most likely explanation could well be the high outsourcing propensity of Southern Mediterranean Firms.

eWork in Southern Europe, G Altieri, L Birindelli, P Bracaglia, C Tartaglione, D Albarracín, J Vaquero, V Fissamber, IES Report 395.