The most important qualitative component of the EMERGENCE project is provided by in-depth case-studies designed to capture the dynamics of employment relocation in both ‘source’ areas, from which certain kinds of information-processing work may be migrating, and ‘destination’ areas, which are currently attracting employment of this type.

The EMERGENCE research instrument will be innovative in using indicators which make it possible to carry out a systematic comparative analysis of organisational structure and culture, in a way which takes account of the different national regulatory, social and policy environments in which organisations are embedded. The case studies will focus on identifying:

• those factors in the national and regional environment (economic, social and political) which act as facilitators of, or barriers to, new ways of working

• those features of organisational structure and corporate culture which act as facilitators of, or barriers to new ways of working

• the business activities which are most likely to be relocated, the forms which this relocation takes, the critical success factors and the costs and benefits

• key enabling technologies, forms of implementation and use of the technical infrastructure

• the social actors involved in decisions to relocate employment and their respective roles

• the criteria used in selecting a location

• the characteristics of the workers whose jobs are most likely to be endangered by the delocalisation of work, and those most likely to benefit (in terms of gender, age, skills, contractual status and other variables)

• the knowledge management issues which arise when work is delocalised

• the HR and training issues which arise when work is delocalised

• models of good practice and exploring the features which are replicable, and

• investigating the impact on the local labour market, either positive or negative, of a large-scale relocation of employment.

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