The Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions (at the University of South Florida) commissioned Innovation Insight to carry out a baseline study on the Tampa Bay MSA for the period 1994-2004 to:

• Describe changes in the total composition of the corporate structure in the MSA (i.e., manufacturing, agriculture, high technology, service, real estate, banking and finance, etc)
• Describe changes in the ownership of the corporate structure in the MSA (i.e., foreign owned or U.S. owned)
• Identify changes in hiring practices of corporations in the MSA by describing the composition of the labor force within the MSA in the following areas: - sources (e.g., local, migration from other parts of the United States, migration from other parts of the world, outsourcing to other parts of the United States and to other parts of the world), - kind (e.g., manufacturing, agricultural, high technology, service)
• Correlate the relationship between changing corporate ownership patterns and changing corporate hiring practices

The research was produced by a research team comprised of researchers from Innovation Insight Inc., the University of South Florida Center for Economic Development Research, the University of Tampa Center for Innovation and Knowledge Management, and Forrester Research (one of the most nationally respected research institutes on the subject of global offshoring trends).

The results of the baseline study were presented at a Center-hosted public forum October 25, 2004. The purpose of the forum was: to discuss actual and potential positive and negative consequences of relying on offshore labor for economic growth and development in the MSA; to discuss the implications of the findings for public policy; and, to identify public policy alternatives at the federal, state, and local levels.

The forum included discussion of how representative (for Florida and for the United States) are identified trends in the Tampa Bay MSA and the extent to which the trends result from prior changes in public policy at the federal, state, and/or local level. The public policy recommendations provided in the report stem from this discussion.

This research project received, and continues to receive a high level of attention for its findings, which ranged beyond observations regarding the impact of offshoring practices on the region to include trends on the structure of future business, technology, career and employment models. The report is available from the Patel Center for Global Solutions.