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The aim of this paper is to make a descriptive exploratory effort to discern the role of IT exports in India's macro-economic indicators, like national income, employment and balance of payment in the post-Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization strategy in the 1990s. The paper also explores the vital historical developments of various dimensions of IT, such as its export growth, major software and services exports destinations, compositions of IT exports and domestic growth in India.

This study is based on secondary data, which were collected from Balance of Payment Statistics Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM),rtd and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY). This study has used descriptive analysis and growth models for studying the objectives. Major IT sector dimensions, such as total output, exports revenue, domestic revenue, gross domestic product, employment and exports of the software and service industry, have been examined for the period 1991–2016.

The findings suggest that over the last 26 years, the information technology industry's economic footprint has extended by more than seven times. Over the same period, direct employment in the information technology sector increased at an average growth rate of around 17%. Software and services exports earn, on average, about three times greater than the other three major services of India's current account of the balance of payment.

This study focuses on originality in examining the role of IT exports in India's macro-economic indicators economic reforms of the 1990s and also explores the historical developments of various dimensions of IT exports and domestic growth in India. All the work has been done in original by the authors, and the work used has been acknowledged properly.

The information technology (IT) sector in India is the leading exporter from the service sector domain and also is a significant contributor to the overall export kitty of India. The IT sector’s contribution in total Indian exports (merchandise plus services) increased from less than 4 percent in FY1998-1999 to about 25 percent in FY2011-2012 as per IT industry nodal body National Association of Software and Services Companies and the central bank of the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As this industry earns most of its revenue in foreign currencies it is exposed to the foreign exchange risks. The purpose of this paper is to validate the macro-economic theory that depreciation in domestic currency boosts export as it makes domestic good and services cheaper and appreciation in domestic currency deters export as it makes domestic good and services costlier. The authors are validating this theory for Indian rupee and keeping software services export in the focus.

In this study the authors have done the multiple regression analysis on the obtained time-series data. The research was totally based on the secondary data from Quarter1 (April-June) of FY 2000-2001 to Quarter4 (January-March) of FY 2011-2012. It comprises of data for 48 consecutive quarters. The authors have taken the growth rate, so the final data set consist of data of 47 quarters. The main source of data are published data by RBI. Data have been collected for export of software services, merchandise export, real effective exchange rate, US-dollar-Indian rupee exchange rate, gross domestic product of India and selected countries.

Data analysis leads the authors to the following findings: real effective exchange rate has no significant impact on software services export; US-dollar-Indian rupee exchange rate has no significant impact on software services export; external gross domestic product growth has no significant impact on software services export; and gross domestic product growth of India has no significant impact on software services export. The results obtained from multiple regression analysis are also supported by the results obtained from Granger Causality test. It does not identify any single factor as a major cause of software export. Results shows that the external GDP is having the statistically significant impact on the software export but the low value of R2 denotes that the impact is very low.

There are no published studies available which has attempted similar kind of an approach to study using aggregated export data and other macro-economic variables like real effective exchange rate (REER) and GDP growth rate. All previous literatures used REER to measure the impact of the exchange rate on export.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate both long-run and short-run dynamics among the software and services export, investment in information technology (IT) and GDP in India and to investigate the direction of the relationship among the given three macro-economic variables.

The time series data have been taken to investigate the long-run relationship exists among the variables. Annual data were collected from the NASSCOM Annual Reports, Planning Commission of India and Reserve Bank of India during the period 1980–2016. Cointegration and vector error correction model have been used for analyzing the causal relationship among investment in IT, software exports and GDP in India.

Cointegration results confirm that software and services export, investment in IT and GDP are cointegrated, implying that there exists the long-run equilibrium relationship among the given three macro-economic variables. Similarly, vector error correction mechanism Granger causality results hold that there is uni-directional long-run causality running from software and services export and investment in IT to GDP, implying that software and services export is an important determinant of economic growth in India.

The limitations of the paper are generalization of the results and proxy variable for IT investments.

The paper has implications for the expansion of market concentration, diversification of software and service exports, and investments in R&D for increasing competitiveness of the industry in the global market.

This paper focuses on originality in the analysis of the relationship among the given variables software exports, investment in the IT sector and GDP in India. All the work has been done in original by the authors and the work used have been acknowledged properly.

The purpose of this study is to estimate revealed comparative advantage and normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA) indices of India’s computer and information services (CIS) export competitiveness with regard to information technology (IT) competing developing nations, such as China, Philippines, Malaysia and Brazil.

Using annual data of total exports for CIS, transportation (TNS), travel (TVL) and insurance (INS) services under service categories of the balance of payment, the present study estimates the pattern of comparative advantage (CA) in India’s CIS exports with respect to IT competing developing nations such as China, Philippines, Malaysia and Brazil from 2000 to 2018. The choice of the study period is determined by the availability of consistent data on IT service exports of these nations. The study also estimates the export position of CIS export in comparison to India’s traditionally strong commercial services export of TNS, TVL and INS during the study period.

Both the indices showed that India had a strong CA in CIS compared to the selected nations, indicating India’s relative export performance to be stronger than that of China, Malaysia, Philippines and Brazil. The cross-service index showed that India’s relative specialization level in CIS with respect to the world’s average specialization level was stronger than its relative specialization level in TNS, TVL and INS services. Furthermore, The NRCA cross-nation index showed that India’s NRCA index score has been declining since 2010 with respect to these nations, which implied a decline in the competitiveness of CIS. On the other hand, NRCA has increased in the case of Philippines, Malaysia and Brazil for most of the period post-2010.

IT is a dynamic area of economic activity, and when the pace of change is so rapid, the relevance of individual factors can change over time. The study period is also limited to the available data.

The paper has implications for attaining sustainability in IT export growth. It is suggested that policies are directed at enhancing the overall performance of IT sector.

The novelty of the present study lies in the estimation of India’s competitiveness in IT exports in relation to the group of reference countries. With its policy recommendations, this research is helping to shape the sustainability of the IT sector.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of trends of Indian information technology and business processing management (IT-BPM) sector and to analyse the determinants of IT-BPM sector during the period 1991-2014.

The study is based on annual data collected from National Association of Software and Service Companies and Department of Electronic and Information Technology for the period 1991 to 2014. The methodology adopted for studying the objectives are simple averages, percentages, ratios, growth rates, graphs prepared on the basis of data from the IT-BPM sector and regression analysis. Trends and patterns in key variables, such as total revenue, domestic revenue, export revenue, employment and exports of the IT-BPM sector have been examined. Factors influencing IT-BPM export growth have been analysed using ordinary least square multiple regression model, with growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP), labour productivity, exchange rate and previous year’s export, as the explanatory variables.

The export revenue from IT-BPM sector increased continuously over the years, at an average growth rate of 36.60 per cent during the period 1991 to 2014. Similarly, domestic revenue of IT-BPM sector also increased, but at a lower growth rate. This is because domestic market in India is captured by multinational giants against Indian firms, which do not possess full comparative advantage in the case of IT-BPM sector. Indian firms are producing low skill activities required for production, mainly concentrated only in the export sector. Direct employment, excluding hardware from IT-BPM sector, has grown at an average rate of 18.08 per cent over the study period. The determinants of IT-BPM exports indicated previous year’s export demand to be significantly contributing the highest to export growth rate. This was followed by GDP growth rate, implying that overall growth of the economy leads to significant increase in export growth. Increased labour productivity followed next in significantly encouraging export growth.

Generalization of the results may not be possible, as Indian conditions and policies vary.

The paper has implications for the expansion of domestic market, diversification of trade and products, innovations for increasing competitiveness and sustainability in the global market in the wake of stiff competitions from new competitors.

This paper focuses on originality in analysis of determinants of export growth.

The aims of the paper are to investigate IT software and service export function for India. First, cointegration tests have been used to investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship of the given variables. Second, long-run coefficients and associated error correction mechanism are estimated.

Annual time series data on IT software and service exports, human capital, exchange rate, investment in IT, external demand and openness index have been used for the present study during the period 1980–2017. The data are collected from the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), Planning Commission of India, University Grants Commission (UGC) of India, real effective exchange rate (REER) database and World Bank development indicators. Auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is used to analyze both short-run and long-run dynamic behaviour of economic variables with appropriate asymptotic inferences.

Results of the analysis show the stable long-run equilibrium relationship among the given variables. It is found that external demand, exchange rate, human capital and openness index have a substantial long-run impact on the IT software and service exports. We also found that the coefficient of error correction term is negative and significant at 1% of the level of significance, which confirms the existence of stable long-run relationship which means adjustment will take place when there is a short-run deviation to its long-run equilibrium after a shock.

There may be other determinants of software and service exports apart from those considered by the present study. Due to the non-availability of data, the study considers only important determinants that determine the software and service exports in India. The IT exports are an emerging and dynamic field of economic activity and the rate of change is so rapid that the relevance of individual factors may change over time. The study period is also limited to available data.

The paper has implications for achieving sustainability in IT software and service exports growth. It is recommended that policies directed at improving the performance of IT software and service exports should largely consider the long-run behaviour of these variables.

This paper focuses on originality in the analysis of the relationship among the given variables including IT software and service exports, human capital, exchange rate, investment in IT, external demand and openness index in India. All the work has been done in original by the authors, and the work used has been acknowledged properly.

The purpose of this paper is to present the growth trends in IT industry after the period of globalization in 1990s and to investigate the short-run and long-run dynamics between IT software and service exports, globalization and economic growth in India.

Annual time series data on IT exports, net national product and openness index have been collected from National Association of Software and Service Companies, the Reserve Bank of India database on Indian economy and the World Bank for the present study. The methodology adopted for studying the first objective are growth trend models, descriptive statistics and graphs prepared on the basis of data from the IT sector. Growth trends in key performance variables, such as total output, export, domestic output and employment have been analyzed. In the case of second objective, vector auto regression model has been used based on variance decomposition and impulse response function to capture the short-run and long-run dynamics between IT exports, globalization and economic growth in India.

Results of the growth trend model show the relative growth performance of software services receipts shows its strong advancement compared to the other sub-components of current account of balance of payments of India. It is found that economic growth responds positively to the shocks in IT exports and openness of economy. Further, IT software and service exports and openness index contribute to economic growth more in the long-run rather than in the short run.

The IT software and service exports is dynamic field of economic activity amid heavy dependence on both domestic and external economic and political environment; hence, the rate of change is so rapid, and the relevance of factors may change over time.

The paper has implications for achieving sustainability in IT software and service exports growth. It is recommended that economic growth can be enhanced by implementing policies that not only improve the efficiency of the sector but also focus on optimization of the potential of the Indian IT industry.

This paper focuses on originality in delineating the growth trends and analysis of capturing the short-run and long-run dynamics between IT exports, globalization and economic growth in India.

The aims of this paper are twofold. First, the trends and patterns in key variables of performance of sample software companies during the study period are overviewed. Second, the determinants of information technology (IT) export across the sample companies during the period of economic slowdown have been analyzed.

Secondary data have been used in the study. Regression analysis is concerned with the study of the dependence of one variable, the dependent variable, on one or more other variables, the explanatory variables, with a view to estimating and/or predicting the mean or average value of the former in terms of the known or fixed values of the latter. The data collected through survey were scrutinized, and statistical software were used for analysis. The variables documented in the study include the exports, capacity utilization, profits, exchange rate and dummy for recession, dummy for countries of export.

The Indian IT sector was set for smaller growth due to global economic slowdown. Large IT service players were able to some extent cope with tighter client spends, but it was smaller IT companies which were facing the severe heat. Production of sample companies decreased at an average of 34 per cent in 2008. The profits of the sample companies have decreased by 34.34 and 78.67 per cent, respectively, during 2008. In case of determinants of software exports, it is observed that capacity utilization is positively related to exports. The estimated mean of exports increases by about 1.370.

This paper focuses on originality in the sphere of scientific work. Secondary data have been used in the study. The data were collected from the Annual Reports of four randomly selected software companies. Both face-to-face interview and on-line survey based on a structured questionnaire to the sample companies were used to collect the data. All the work has been done in original by the authors and the work used has been acknowledged properly.

Marketing management – services marketing specialization.

MBA/PGDM senior students studying services marketing as a specialization course.

US Technology Private Ltd (UST) is a major software services company in India. It was started in 1999 with a few employees at an offshore development centre in Trivandrum. Now in 2010, renamed UST Global, the company has over 7,000 employees worldwide. Phenomenal success of such a software company, in the left-oriented party dominated state of Kerala, has invited the attention of many people in the industry. The company earned valuable foreign exchange through software exports for the country and the state over the last ten years. The company has created innovative service differentiators, to impress on its clients, on the advantage of doing business with the company. The cementing customer satisfaction and derived customer delight that the company has created in their clients, has secured stable customer relationship management and customer loyalty. This reinforces the trust they have shown in the services management philosophy adopted by the company. The company's unique hybrid delivery model has worked well with its clients. Its unique selling proposition of “few clients and more focus” has resulted in delight of its customers, as they see it as a value addition for their money's worth. The leadership team attributes the success of the company to its fundamental core values and twin strategy of customer centricity and employee focus.

These are: customer perception of service; purpose of customer relationship management; service differentiators; and employees' role in delivering successful software service solutions to the customer, etc.

Teaching notes.

Is the rise of the Indian software industry simply another Asian state-dominated industrial growth story or is India distinctive, an economy where small technology entrepreneurs also find niches for development and can be drivers of innovation? Research has focused on the large integrated Indian and international service providers. This study examines the opportunity for growth among smaller innovative technology entrepreneurial firms. Two areas of inquiry are: What factors have been responsible for spurring growth in the Indian IT industry? What type of work is being carried out at Indian firms and is this profile changing? This paper aims to examine the emergence of technology entrepreneurs, particularly in terms of their links to multinational firms and their role and position in global value chains. The paper takes a multi-level approach to understanding development trajectories in the IT sector in India: a global value chain approach to the extent that company processes are seen in their larger networked context across organizations and an institutional approach in terms of state policies that influence the creation of infrastructure that, in turn, shapes organizational development trajectories. Additionally, it examines the role of the various actors within IT sector organizations – the workers, the managers and, in the case of the small companies in our sample, the owners – on the outcome of growth trajectories in the Indian IT sector. We find that the various levels of change and policy all contribute to the outcome in company trajectories: the dominance of multinational enterprises on the market, the entrepreneurial vision and survival strategies of returned technology expatriates, and the changing policies of the government in promoting indigenous business.

Qualitative research interviews; comparative case study; literature review; multi-tier analysis.

The technology entrepreneurial development in India appears to represent quite a distinctive path in terms of both firm development and broader economic development. It is focused on the IT sector, in which high skill “knowledge work” is carried out and which has been able to develop despite lack of basic infrastructure (roads and reliable electricity).

After the opening up of the business environment to large Western multinational enterprises (MNEs), it was difficult for indigenous Indian entrepreneurs to compete in innovative product development markets. Developing such companies depended on individual risk taking, as no specific infrastructure existed for niche production. However, the knowledge base and innovation clusters did offer opportunities for obtaining contracts. The Indian entrepreneurs did have to make a lot of compromises about defining their business and the tasks they could undertake. More research is needed on the paths and development opportunities for these smaller Indian-owned firms.

Unique opportunities are emergent and defy easy policy prescriptions, other than precluding change that does not foreclose emergent possibilities (e.g. such as strong state controlled business development).

Indian-owned innovative companies, although having difficulties competing with large Indian and Western MNEs, do put pressure on these MNEs to move work up the value chain, thereby providing more interesting and challenging opportunities for Indian knowledge workers.

This paper provides a unique company-level perspective about entrepreneurialism in the Indian software sector from the perspective of different actors in the process. It then links this company-level perspective to a larger context both in terms of trajectories of development at the macro level, as well as the role that the company’s place in multinational value chains has in its development perspectives. It gives a special insight into the motivations and obstacles facing entrepreneurs in India’s dynamic software sector.