European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms?

Keller, Florian; Zoller-Rydzek, Benedikt

doi:10.18267/j.cebr.217

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-19434

Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms?
Authors:	Keller, Florian Zoller-Rydzek, Benedikt
et. al:	No
DOI:	10.18267/j.cebr.217 10.21256/zhaw-19434
Published in:	Central European Business Review
Volume(Issue):	8
Issue:	3
Page(s):	35
Pages to:	53
Issue Date:	2019
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Oeconomica
ISSN:	1805-4854 1805-4862
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	658.1: Organization and finance
Abstract:	The main goal of this paper is to identify the major factors for the decision of Swiss IT service firms to nearshore their locations and to quantify their relative importance. Moreover, we develop an IT Nearshoring Index ranking the attractiveness of different European regions. We use a quantitative survey of 56 Swiss IT service firms that are either actively engaging in nearshoring or planning to nearshore parts of their business. Using the survey, we identified five main factors for the nearshoring location decision of Swiss IT firms: economic, labour, institutional, social and location. We pin down the relative importance (weights) of the aforementioned factors using the survey results and expert interviews. The labour factors (including labour costs on the one and the availability of skilled IT workforce on the other side) proved to be most important. We use the obtained weights to construct a (weighted) IT Nearshoring Index. Based on the IT Nearshoring Index, we find that in contrast to general belief, the most attractive locations cannot be found in Eastern Europe, but in Southern UK or Western Germany. The first is due to their high availability of IT workforce, the latter due to their cultural and geographical proximity. Eastern European regions can base their competitive advantage on offering attractive labour costs, but this cannot make up for the disadvantage of greater cultural and geographical distance to Switzerland.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/19434
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution - Non commercial - No derivatives 4.0 International
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	International Management Institute (IMI)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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Keller, F., & Zoller-Rydzek, B. (2019). European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms? Central European Business Review, 8(3), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.217

Keller, F. and Zoller-Rydzek, B. (2019) ‘European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms?’, Central European Business Review, 8(3), pp. 35–53. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.217.

F. Keller and B. Zoller-Rydzek, “European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms?,” Central European Business Review, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 35–53, 2019, doi: 10.18267/j.cebr.217.

KELLER, Florian und Benedikt ZOLLER-RYDZEK, 2019. European nearshoring index : is eastern Europe attractive for Swiss IT firms? Central European Business Review. 2019. Bd. 8, Nr. 3, S. 35–53. DOI 10.18267/j.cebr.217

Keller, Florian, and Benedikt Zoller-Rydzek. 2019. “European Nearshoring Index : Is Eastern Europe Attractive for Swiss IT Firms?” Central European Business Review 8 (3): 35–53. https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.217.

Keller, Florian, and Benedikt Zoller-Rydzek. “European Nearshoring Index : Is Eastern Europe Attractive for Swiss IT Firms?” Central European Business Review, vol. 8, no. 3, 2019, pp. 35–53, https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.217.