This research involves an inter-regional comparative study of work-life balance (WLB) provision and its impacts on the socio-economic competiveness of firms within the IT sector - specifically computer software - in Cambridge, UK with those in Dublin, Ireland.  The main research aims are:To reposition and broaden the so-called 'business case' for WLB through a mutual gains approach that examines the social needs of employees beyond the workplace - as parents and citizens - alongside the economic competitiveness requirements of firms.To improve our understanding of the impacts of, and mechanisms through which, worker uptake of different WLB polices and practices shapes the learning and innovation processes widely identified as underpinning firms' abilities to compete in the knowledge economy.To examine the role of different regional and national institutional frameworks in shaping and conditioning the impact of WLB policies and practices on firms' socio-economic performance in regional industrial systems.

The research has involved 68 in-depth interviews with IT workers, managers, and labour organisers; two regional surveys of IT employers (150 firms in total with combined local employment of 8068 workers); and a WLB / labour mobility survey of 162 IT workers. All datasets were newly created for this research project and were not derived from other previously published or unpublished sources