GLOBALISATION OF SERVICES - SOME EVIDENCE ON INTERNATIONAL SERVICIFICATION OF MANUFACTURING

Services have occupied a dominant place in most economies for a long time and they are indisputably perceived as an important feature of the global economic landscape. The recent research on measuring trade in terms of the value added to products has highlighted an even more significance of services in home economies as well as in international trade. It has also thrown a light on the growing interrelationship between services and manufacturing activities described in the term of 'servicification of manufacturing'. Essentially, the servicification of manufacturing can be defined as the fact that manufacturing companies increasingly buy, produce and sell services. All these activities could either be run at home or internationally. The main objective of the papers is the discussion of analytical frameworks for the international dimension of servicification as well as an overview of the previous research relating to this phenomenon. The analysis shows that measuring all constituents of international servicification encounters numerous limitations resulting from statistical data shortcomings. Nevertheless, the existing research clearly evidence the increasing level of international dimension of servicification. It points out that international trade in services goes beyond the scope of GATS modes of supplying services and in addition to cross-border transactions and rendering services through the movement of labor and capital, it encompasses services embodied in exported or imported goods which are traded indirectly across borders.