INTERNATIONALIZATION, DIVERSIFICATION AND SPATIAL RESTRUCTURING IN TRANSNATIONAL COMPUTER SERVICE FIRMS - CASE-STUDIES FROM THE UK MARKET

This paper has two foci. Firstly, it profiles the evolving internation alisation and diversification strategies of leading computer service p roviders since 1990, and secondly it considers how such dynamics are a ffecting the spatial networks of these transnational firms through the window of the U.K. industry. Nine of the top twelve computer service providers in the U.K. market are used as case studies. In response to the demands of multinational clients and increasingly open and competi tive markets, it appears that nationally oriented subsidiaries are bei ng superseded by more responsive, internationally oriented structures. In particular, R&D and marketing operations are increasingly being co -ordinated at the continental or global scale. Simultaneously, firms a re diversifying into new computer service markets in order to offer a wider variety of services. However, the exact nature of the restructur ing undertaken and its spatial outcome varies both between different t ypes of computer service firms and different growth strategies. A key distinction is that firms actively seeking growth in the IT outsourcin g market appear to be undergoing more spatially extensive growth, whil e the remaining firms are consolidating their operations in core regio ns. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.