Sri Lanka software export industry : an evaluation using the software export success model

Abstract

The last twenty-five years have seen an explosive growth in the software industry. Annual growth in the global software industry has been above 15 per cent since the early 1990s and remains on rising trend. Many countries world-wide are becoming active or interested in software exports. The major software industries of the world are located in the world's richest economies; countries such as the USA, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Italy that have been building those industries since in the late 1960s. Those which developed a software industry after the 1970s were called 'followers' and the three largest software 'followers' are 3Is - India, Ireland & Israel. The local software export industry also elapses a period of steady growth. The key factor which contributes for the development of the software industry is the expansion of the outsourcing opportunities received from developed countries. The Software Lxponers Association (SEA) of Sri Lanka has targeted to achieve total exports of US$ 1.0 billion in 2012. To achieve this target Sri Lanka need to compete with \ industry giant such as first-tier countries - India, Ireland, Israel, etc and the countries in the second-tier China, Russia etc. The rationale of this research, is to focus on the first-tier follower countries that successfully built export-oriented software industries, to gain knowledge from their experiences and to then examine the status of 'second-tier' follower - 'Sri Lanka' in the light of those experiences. Further to identify strengths and weaknesses of the Sri Lankan Software Export Industry using Software Export Success Model. Even though the scope of this research is limited to the particular model, the methodology and the findings intend to broaden the Sri Lankan software export industry while enlightening the future research works. l.astly. in the thesis, accepting the research findings as baseline, it recommends various strategies clutched by analysing '3Is' using the success model.