Marketing software products: The importance of 'being there' and the implications for business service exports

If business services have any potential to function as basic industries that access autonomous sources of demand outside the region or nation, it hinges on the degree to which these activities can be sold to distant, and preferably international, export markets. It is essential to understand the factors that make business services more or less tradeable over distance. In this paper, empirical evidence concerning the extent of producer and business service exports is reviewed, and the more qualitative dimensions of the tradeability of business services are explored in greater detail in order to identify factors that both limit and encourage exports of business services. Research in the software product segment of the computer services sector suggests that it may not actually be the 'need' for face-to-face interaction with clients that keeps some types of suppliers of business services from exporting. The traditional rationale regarding the importance of proximity to markets, the impact of information technology, and the dynamics of producer-user interaction is examined in order to identify when it is most important for suppliers to 'be there', close to customers. Based on research with software products, it is possible to identify other attributes of business services that may be more critical to determining tradeability and explaining sectoral differences in export intensity than the need to 'be there' for clients.