Field of Dreams: Building IT Capabilities in Rural America

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide industry insights on the business models, practices, and capabilities that suppliers need to deliver cost‐effective information technology (IT) outsourcing services from rural locations within the USA. As rural outsourcing has not yet been studied by academics, many questions have not yet been answered. How can suppliers attract enough talent to rural areas to make rural outsourcing viable? How can suppliers scale operations? Will the value proposition attract serious clients? An ongoing research project was launched to answer these and other questions about rural outsourcing. This paper aims to report on the first set of findings based on four case studies.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports on the results from four case studies of rural outsourcing suppliers. In total, 35 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with founders, executives, delivery center managers, and delivery team members and a visit was made to a rural delivery center own...