E-service Hubs: Paradox or Local Advantage?

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of new technologies on service hubs. While it is too simple to conclude that ‘place’ is being superseded by a ‘space of flows’ in business activity, we acknowledge that new technologies have enhanced the mobility of certain economic activities. Service hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong, traditionally dominated by trading and decision-making functions, are increasingly drawn by new technologies into other ‘enabling’ services, and more economies are outlining development strategies predicated on utilizing new technologies to assume e-service hub roles for the global economy. This can point towards two different paths of development — to apply new technologies to expand global reach and enhance efficiency in their existing role, or, even without a background of specialist traditional services, to attract new information and communication technologies related service providers in sufficient numbers to qualify as e-hubs. It is not necessarily the case that new services must be located in established centers, nor that they need to cluster at all; hence we ask here what kind of profile e-hubs can have, whether electronic business activities will rely on established centers, and whether such centers offer any advantages in an electronically driven global economy that can justify their aspirations. It is raising relevant questions rather than claiming conclusions that this paper aims at.