IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v164y2020i1d10.1007_s10551-018-4071-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Ernesto Noronha

    (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
    Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)

  • Premilla D’Cruz

    (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)

  • Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday

    (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)

Abstract

In this article, we shift the usual analytical attention of the GPN framework from lead firms to suppliers in the network and from production to IT services. Our focus is on how Indian IT suppliers embed in the Netherlands along the threefold characterization of societal, territorial and network embeddedness. We argue that Indian IT suppliers attempt to display societal embeddedness when they move to The Netherlands. Our findings reveal that the endeavour by Indian IT suppliers to territorially dis-embed from the Dutch context is reinforced by their peripheral position in the network and their ability to offshore work in a bid to contain costs, in addition to the influence of client domination. Therefore, territorial embeddedness is considered to be secondary to societal embeddedness which is intertwined with client interest while neglecting the interest of other network members. Nonetheless, the inter-firm relationship is complex, given the tension between societal, territorial and network embeddedness. While preferring Indian IT suppliers because of their low pricing, Dutch clients also insist on compliance with the institutional context of the Netherlands especially when it comes to Dutch employees. This results in hybridization which means that Indian IT suppliers find ways to adhere to the institutional framework for Dutch nationals while simultaneously insulating Indian employees from the same. Consequently, a highly unfair segmented internal labour market develops, with Dutch nationals being treated more favourably as compared to Indian nationals. Nonetheless, to address these violations, Indian employees prefer individual strategies of resilience and rework rather than a collectivization response.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernesto Noronha & Premilla D’Cruz & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, 2020. "Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 95-113, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:164:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4071-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4071-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-4071-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-4071-3?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michelle Lowe & Neil Wrigley, 2010. "The “Continuously Morphing” Retail TNC During Market Entry: Interpreting Tesco’s Expansion into the United States," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(4), pages 381-408, October.
    2. Agrawal, Narendra M. & Khatri, Naresh & Srinivasan, R., 2012. "Managing growth: Human resource management challenges facing the Indian software industry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 159-166.
    3. Benjamin Selwyn, 2016. "Global value chains and human development: a class-relational framework," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1768-1786, October.
    4. Peter Knorringa & Khalid Nadvi, 2016. "Rising Power Clusters and the Challenges of Local and Global Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 55-72, January.
    5. Jane Wills, 1998. "Taking on the CosmoCorps? Experiments in Transnational Labor Organization," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(2), pages 111-130, April.
    6. Andy Cumbers & Corinne Nativel & Paul Routledge, 2008. "Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 369-387, May.
    7. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Global production networks: realizing the potential," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 271-295, May.
    8. Coe, Neil M. & Yeung, Henry Wai-chung, 2015. "Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic Development in an Interconnected World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198703914.
    9. Steve Burt & Ulf Johansson & John Dawson, 2017. "Dissecting embeddedness in international retailing," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 685-707.
    10. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Frederick MAYER & John PICKLES & Anne POSTHUMA, 2011. "Decent work in global production networks: Framing the policy debate," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 297-317, December.
    11. Balaji Parthasarathy, 2004. "India's Silicon Valley or Silicon Valley's India? Socially Embedding the Computer Software Industry in Bangalore," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 664-685, September.
    12. Sahay,Sundeep & Nicholson,Brian & Krishna,S., 2003. "Global IT Outsourcing," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521816045, September.
    13. Matthew Alford & Stephanie Barrientos & Margareet Visser, 2017. "Multi-scalar Labour Agency in Global Production Networks: Contestation and Crisis in the South African Fruit Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(4), pages 721-745, July.
    14. Martin Hess & Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, 2006. "Whither Global Production Networks in Economic Geography? Past, Present, and Future," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(7), pages 1193-1204, July.
    15. Arora, Ashish & Arunachalam, V. S. & Asundi, Jai & Fernandes, Ronald, 2001. "The Indian software services industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1267-1287, October.
    16. Matthew Alford & Nicola Phillips, 2018. "The political economy of state governance in global production networks: change, crisis and contestation in the South African fruit sector," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 98-121, January.
    17. Carolyn Penfold, 2009. "Off-Shored Services Workers: Labour Law and Practice in India," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 19(2), pages 91-106, July.
    18. Athreye, Suma S., 2004. ""Role of Transnational Corporations in the Evolution of a High-Tech Industry: The Case of India's Software Industry"--A Comment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 555-560, March.
    19. Y. H. Dennis Wei, 2015. "Network Linkages and Local Embeddedness of Foreign Ventures in China: The Case of Suzhou Municipality," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 287-299, February.
    20. Noronha, Ernesto & D'Cruz, Premilla & Kuruvilla, Sarosh, 2016. "Globalization of commodification: legal process outsourcing and Indian lawyers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65138, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    21. Niels Beerepoot & Iris Roodheuvel, 2016. "Internationalization strategies of emerging market-based multinationals: integration of Indian ICT-ITES companies on the Dutch service outsourcing market," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 1374-1391, July.
    22. Paul Boselie, 2009. "A Balanced Approach to Understanding the Shaping of Human Resource Management in Organisations," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(1), pages 90-108.
    23. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    24. Ashish Arora & Jai Asundi, 1999. "Quality Certification and the Economics of Contract Software Development A Study of the Indian Software Industry," NBER Working Papers 7260, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Frasquet, Marta & Dawson, John & Calderón, Haydeé & Fayos, Teresa, 2018. "Integrating embeddedness with dynamic capabilities in the internationalisation of fashion retailers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 904-914.
    26. Annalee Saxenian, 2002. "Transnational Communities and the Evolution of Global Production Networks: The Cases of Taiwan, China and India," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 183-202.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Yossi Dahan & Hanna Lerner & Faina Milman-Sivan, 2023. "Shared Responsibility and Labor Rights in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1025-1040, February.
    2. Premilla D’Cruz & Shuili Du & Ernesto Noronha & K. Praveen Parboteeah & Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich & Glen Whelan, 2022. "Technology, Megatrends and Work: Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 879-902, October.
    3. Premilla D’Cruz & Ernesto Noronha & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday & Saikat Chakraborty, 2022. "Place Matters: (Dis)embeddedness and Child Labourers’ Experiences of Depersonalized Bullying in Indian Bt Cottonseed Global Production Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 241-263, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Noronha, Ernesto & D'Cruz, Premilla, 2020. "The Indian IT industry: A global production network perspective," IPE Working Papers 134/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    2. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    3. Rory Horner, 2022. "Global value chains, import orientation, and the state: South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 68-87, March.
    4. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    5. Margareet Visser & Matthew Alford, 2024. "Governance and Power Across Intersecting Value Chains: The Case of South African Apples," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 69-86, January.
    6. Frasquet, Marta & Dawson, John & Calderón, Haydeé & Fayos, Teresa, 2018. "Integrating embeddedness with dynamic capabilities in the internationalisation of fashion retailers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 904-914.
    7. Plank, Leonhard & Staritz, Cornelia, 2014. "Global competition, institutional context, and regional production networks: Up- and downgrading experiences in Romania's apparel industry," Working Papers 50, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    8. Céline Louche & Lotte Staelens & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "When Workplace Unionism in Global Value Chains Does Not Function Well: Exploring the Impediments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 379-398, March.
    9. Cédric Durand & David Flacher & Vincent Frigant, 2018. "Étudier les chaînes globales de valeur comme une forme d’organisation industrielle," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 13-34.
    10. Helwing Veronique & Verfürth Philip & Franz Martin, 2023. "Trucking (un)limited – the impact of digital platforms on labour in production networks of logistics," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 67(4), pages 177-188, December.
    11. Shyamain Wickramasingha, 2023. "Geographies of dissociation: informality, ethical codes and fragmented labour regimes in the Sri Lankan apparel industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1191-1211.
    12. Giovanni Pasquali & Shane Godfrey & Khalid Nadvi, 2021. "Understanding regional value chains through the interaction of public and private governance: Insights from Southern Africa’s apparel sector," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(3), pages 368-389, September.
    13. Valentina De Marchi & Matthew Alford, 2022. "State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 88-111, March.
    14. Oya, Carlos & Schaefer, Florian, 2021. "The politics of labour relations in global production networks: Collective action, industrial parks, and local conflict in the Ethiopian apparel sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Dallas, Mark P. & Horner, Rory & Li, Lantian, 2021. "The mutual constraints of states and global value chains during COVID-19: The case of personal protective equipment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. Crispian Fuller & Nicholas A Phelps, 2018. "Revisiting the multinational enterprise in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 139-161.
    17. Mike Morris & Leonhard Plank & Cornelia Staritz, 2016. "Regionalism, end markets and ownership matter: Shifting dynamics in the apparel export industry in Sub Saharan Africa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(7), pages 1244-1265, July.
    18. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2018. "Global socio-technical regimes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 735-749.
    19. Yoruk, Deniz E., 2019. "Dynamics of firm-level upgrading and the role of learning in networks in emerging markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 341-369.
    20. Xinyu Yang & Weidong Liu, 2022. "Agricultural Production Networks and Upgrading from a Global–Local Perspective: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:164:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4071-3. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.