Asian EMERGENCE: The World's Back Office?

The rapid development of eWork in Asia was, by the mid 2000s, leading to an equally rapid growth of a new professional and technical middle class in the Asian cities and regions where this development was taking place.

This was driving a general development process, accompanied by an equally explosive growth in markets. The companies whose practices were bringing about the new global division of labour in information services also stood to benefit from access to these markets, as did the nations where they were based.

The question facing policy makers was: how should these benefits be distributed throughout the population to ensure that the 'losers' were not excluded from their share of the proceeds?

This study drew on 59 in-depth case studies of eWork relocation, exploring the trends and implications for managers, workers and policy makers. It built on earlier work by the EC-sponsored EMERGENCE project carried out on 2000-2001.