IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/growch/v34y2003i1p87-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Call of the Wild: Call Centers and Economic Development in Rural Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Ranald Richardson
  • Andrew Gillespie

Abstract

This paper attempts to reflect critically on the role which telephone call centers might play in the economic development of rural places in the ‘information age’, drawing mainly on a case study of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It argues that although call center employment tends mainly to be urban‐based, the growth of this form of work does present opportunities for some rural areas. The paper considers the locational factors rural areas would have to possess or develop in order to attract such work. It suggests call centers can make a valuable, though limited, contribution towards rural economic development, principally through the creation of additional employment opportunities and the stimulation of new skills and competencies. It also suggests that call centers do not represent a panacea for rural areas and that, indeed, it would be dangerous for rural areas to become over‐reliant on employment in this sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Ranald Richardson & Andrew Gillespie, 2003. "The Call of the Wild: Call Centers and Economic Development in Rural Areas," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 87-108, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:34:y:2003:i:1:p:87-108
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2257.00200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2257.00200
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2257.00200?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Charisia Vlachou & Olga Iakovidou, 2015. "The Evolution Of Studies On Business Location Factors," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(04), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Chris Benner, 2006. "'South Africa On-call': Information Technology and Labour Market Restructuring in South African Call Centres," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(9), pages 1025-1040.
    3. Inge Sieben & Andries De Grip & Jessica Longen & Ole Sørensen, 2009. "Technology, Selection, and Training in Call Centers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(4), pages 553-572, July.
    4. Yejin Yoo & Seungbee Choi, 2022. "Effects of Top-Down Balanced Development Strategies on Regional Balance: Evidence from Public Big Data in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, December.
    5. Chad R. Wilkerson & Megan D. Williams, 2007. "The Tenth District's defining industries: how are they changing?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 92(Q III), pages 59-81.
    6. Ebru Seckin, 2011. "Capacity Building Potential Of The Call Center Sector In Turkey," ERSA conference papers ersa10p807, European Regional Science Association.
    7. Jana Maria Kleibert, 2015. "Islands of globalisation: Offshore Services and the Changing Spatial Divisions of Labour," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(4), pages 884-902, April.
    8. Megan D. Williams, 2007. "The Tenth District's defining industries: changes and opportunities for rural communities," Main Street Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue 5.
    9. Ebru Seçkin, 2011. "The Location Behavior Of Call Centre Firms In Turkey," ERSA conference papers ersa11p742, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Shelley M. Kimelberg & Elizabeth Williams, 2013. "Evaluating the Importance of Business Location Factors: The Influence of Facility Type," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 92-117, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:34:y:2003:i:1:p:87-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0017-4815 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.