Managing value creation in knowledge intensive business services organisations

Value creation is essential in the Knowledge Intensive Business Service (KIBS) industry, due to its problem-solving nature. KIBS organisations need to understand their internal value creation processes as well as the complexity in the environment in order to survive and thrive. This paper investigates how value creation is managed in KIBS organisation through a case study. It then goes on to adopt Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) to propose an organisational design, namely the Value Integration Office (VIO). The VIO focuses on the 5 functions/systems defined by VSM in the meta-system and operation of an organisation in order to manage value creation. This design is implemented in a case study organisation with the aim to adopt a holistic view on value creation within the organisation as well as facilitate future planning function. The implementation and impact of the proposed organisational design are reported in this paper

The Impacts of Knowledge Interaction with Manufacturing Clients on KIBS Firms Innovation Behaviour

knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), knowledge interaction, innovations systems

Knowledge Management in Knowledge Intensive Service Networks: A Strategic Management Perspective

Knowledge is the key to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Driven by a change in consumer needs towards “comprehensive service solutions”, more and more services are offered through networks. By so doing, individual firms can concentrate on their distinctive competencies and by combining these with those of partner firms such a network is able to offer complex, knowledge-intensive services at high quality and at reasonable prices. It is clear that the success of such knowledge intensive service networks depends strongly on the effective and efficient combination and use of the distinctive competencies of the network partners. That ability to combine and use distinctive competencies represents the core competency of the network as a whole. Understanding knowledge as a key resource for those distinctive competencies the combination problem can be seen as a knowledge management problem. The main contribution of this paper is to analyze knowledge management in service networks. We use a strategic management approach instead of a more technology-oriented approach since we believe that managerial problems still remain after technological problems have been solved. Therefore the question arises how to guarantee an effective and efficient combination and utilization of the distributed knowledge in knowledge-intensive service networks. The objective of this paper is to analyze the problems concerning the management of knowledge in service networks. It outlines possible solutions for these knowledge management problems in order to provide sustaining competitive advantage for the network as a whole.knowledge management, networks, knowledge-intensive services

Knowledge-intensive business services: a brief overview

In the last decade of the 20th century knowledge has gained importance in the economy. This lead to the emergence of knowledge-based activities: knowledge-intensive organizations, and particularly knowledge-intensive services. These organizations function as external knowledge sources for other organizations. Their performance depends largely on professional knowledge. Since their performance has an impact on the success of their clients, it is important to look at those factors which influence the knowledge transfer between service provider and client organization. Based on theory and empirical research, the paper addresses the specific aspects of knowledge transfer from knowledge-intensive business service organizations to client organizations.Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), client organization, client knowledge., Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, L84,

Knowledge-intensive services and international competitiveness: a four country comparison

The nature and consequences of services innovation remains a woefully under-researchedtopic. The paper calls into question two statements that are frequentlyrepeated in the political-economic discourse on services. The first concerns thesuggestion that Germany is a ‘services laggard’ that needs to restructure its domesticeconomy if it is to remain internationally competitive. By contrast, the UK is frequentlyheld up as an example of a successfully restructured ‘services economy’. The paperdraws an important distinction between the quantity of services in a domestic economyand the degree of connectivity between services and other economic activities. Thelatter, it is argued, is far more important in determining the size of spillovers fromservices innovation enjoyed within a domestic economy and, hence, to internationalcompetitiveness. Particular attention is paid to the role and impact of knowledge-intensiveservice sectors in this regard. In addition to the UK and Germany, data isdrawn from the Netherlands and Japan. Using these four comparative cases we explorethe distinction between a high representation of services in the domestic economy, andthe innovation spillovers facilitated by a high degree of connectivity between servicesand other economic sectors within a domestic economy.economic development an growth ;

Regional distribution of the knowledge based economy in the eu: towards an oligocentric model?

The emergence of new economic activities is a driving force of economic growth and its geography is clearly controversial. But the Knowledge-Based Economy (K-BE) is something more than new activities, it is also about the ongoing renewal of all economic activities. And this increasing knowledge intensity of every activity could have an effect on the geography of large part of industries. In this paper we aims to contribute to a better understanding of the geography of Knowledge-Based Economy (K-BE), by an empirical examen of its geographic concentration across European regions. To do so we classify economic activities into six sectors according to its knowledge/technology intensity and we analyse its concentration patterns at the EU regional level (nuts 2). The six sectors we set-up are: High, Medium and Low Knowledge Intensive Services and High, Medium and Low Tech Manufacturing. The data has been provided by the REGIO database (Eurostat). At the same time, we also try to capture the regional specialisation patterns. The results regarding concentration show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher its concentration level is. Besides, we found that some services activities (the high knowledge intensive ones), present similar concentration levels than high or medium tech manufacturing. On the other hand, regarding specialisation the most outstanding result is the clear predominance of metropolitan regions in the highest knowledge/technology intensive activities (particularly in the case of services). Altogether, the picture delivered on a whole viewpoint is one where a reinforced oligocentric model remains in Europe, while relativelly reshaping its appearence: southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing and the English Southeast leading high knowledge-intensive services, but sharing all of them its relevance with a peak range of growing state metropolis (particularly capitals) from both northern and southern Europe. Key words: regional concentration,knowledge intensive activities,oligocentric model.

What type of innovative firms acquire knowledge intensive services and from which suppliers?

Knowledge intensive services (KIS) and, in particular, R&D services contribute significantly to innovation in firms. The objective of this paper is to find out which characteristics of firms explain the acquisition of R&D services and to analyse whether there are differences depending on the typology of the supplier (universities, technology centres and consulting firms). Three main conclusions emerge from the econometric estimations. Firstly, the results show that size and age matter in the decision to buy R&D services, but these characteristics of firms do not have any particular influence in the decision to choose a specific supplier. Secondly, our results are consistent with the relevance that the literature gives to human capital in absorbing external knowledge. The variables used to control for human skills have a positive effect on the decision to buy R&D services. On the contrary, the estimates of other variables that capture internal knowledge base suggest that there is a substitution process between internal R&D activities and acquiring R&D services. Thirdly, innovation policy has a significant influence on the decision to acquire R&D services.Knowledge intensive services; R&D services; universities; technology centres; consulting firms; innovation policy

Germany's Technological Specialization Assures Growth Opportunities

Germany's economic profile gives reason to believe that the country will emerge strengthened from the current economic crisis. Germany boasts the world's highest share of value-added output attributable to (R&D) intensive goods and knowledge intensive services. At the same time, Germany possesses an extremely broad range of economic sectors that rely on R&D intensive goods and knowledge intensive services. German firms have strong competitive advantages in numerous industries, including vehicle manufacturing, chemicals, machine building, measurement and medical technologies, as well as business oriented services. Moreover, in relation to its important trading partners, Germany has a unique production portfolio. Although Germany's dependence on exports and specialization in the production of capital equipment has led to a sharp decline in demand in the current crisis, the country's orientation in R&D intensive technology represents a strong foundation for renewed growth as soon as the global economic climate improves. However, continued business investment in R&D during the recession is necessary if Germany hopes to emerge the crisis on sound footing-even if such investment does not generate revenues over the near term.Industrial specialization, Technological change

Sectoral innovation performance in the knowledge intensive services

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Creative industries

Creative industries are nowadays central in many policies to stimulate the economic development of cities, regions and advanced capitalist economies in general. This paper contributes to the� creative industries literature in two respects. First, we empirically explore if high shares of creative industries in regions go together with one particular aspect of regional economic development, namely firm entry rates. Drawing on Dutch trade register data over a six-year period, it is concluded that at the level of municipalities there is indeed a connection between the share of creative industries and firm entry, even after controlling for the sizes of municipalities, and no matter if creative industries are defined broadly or narrowly. Second, the paper analyses if firms in creative industries are heterogeneous in terms of business processes and their contribution to regional firm entry. Drawing on previous work four creative domains are identified: arts, media and entertainment, creative business services and, at the periphery, knowledge intensive business services. After analysing survey data of 4,746 Dutch SMEs, we find that firms across these domains are distinct in their use of the surveyed business practices: innovation, strategy and marketing, and human resources practices. Especially knowledge intensive services firms are deviant. For the connection with firm entry rates, it appears that high shares of firms in the arts and knowledge intensive business services are significantly connected with regional firm entry rates, while media and entertainment and creative business services remain insignificant. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed. �