Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Innovation Systems Research Network - Working Papers
Not much specifically on KIBS (except telecomms), but many working papers on knowledge structures, social capital, University-industry links, etc
Not much specifically on KIBS (except telecomms), but many working papers on knowledge structures, social capital, University-industry links, etc
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Good review of all sorts of issues by Jari Kuusisto and colleagues on
Services in Knowledge Economy
Look around TEKES, SITRA and ETLA websites for other good reports, e.g. by Leiponen on Knowledge Services.
Services in Knowledge Economy
Look around TEKES, SITRA and ETLA websites for other good reports, e.g. by Leiponen on Knowledge Services.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
ITC Services Exporting Index
Comprehensive sitre on services trade;
http://www.intracen.org/servicexport/sehp_about_service_trade.htm
Comprehensive sitre on services trade;
http://www.intracen.org/servicexport/sehp_about_service_trade.htm
Products and Services Books - Business Book Summaries,product development,supply chain,customer service,mass customization,project management,new products,continuous improvement,core capabilities:
Abstracts of many books here.
Abstracts of many books here.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
PRODUCER-SERVICES STUDY IN A REVITALIZED REGIONAL SCIENCE
Harrington: Producer-Services Study in Regional Science
Harrington: Producer-Services Study in Regional Science
William Coffey on THE GEOGRAPHIES OF PRODUCER SERVICES
(lit review)
(lit review)
Monday, July 21, 2003
The purpose of this blog is to set out the basics about Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS).
KIBS are private firms - not public sector oprganisations like Universities or government labs (though these may provide some KIBS-like services to external clients).
They provide services to businesses - or, more precisely, they use high levels of highly specialised knowledge to provide support to business processes in other organisations.
There are two classic extemes
Traditional professional services
these make elaborate use of social and institutional knowledge.
A typical purpose of traditional professional services is helping their clients deal with complex social systems. The things they deal with include:
1) institutions especially administrative rules and regulations (e.g., legal and accountancy services);
2) less formally organised social groups and interests (e.g., marketing and issues consultancy services);
3) psychological and biological systems, (e.g., medical and veterinary services, educational and clinical psychology and psychiatry, counselling, etc.);
4) elaborate artefacts of a (traditionally) low tech nature e.g., architecture and building services).
Technology-based KIBS
Some new services are directly based on new technology applications. For instance, Web and Internet, software and computer services help their clients to use the new technologies more effectively. Other technology-based KIBS are more involved with the production and transfer of knowledge about new technology (for instance, information and training services often play such roles). Yet others are centrally focused on technology development - e.g. many technical and engineering services, especially those engaged in contract R&D and design, and some testing services.
Services exist to support users of all types of technology. But the knowledge requirements for technology users are bound to be more challenging where new technology is involved. New technologies are often complex and demanding, until ways have been found of rendering them more user-friendly. The knowledge necessary to understand, master, and utilise the new product and process opportunities provided by new technologies will be less readily available. KIBS can thus help supply knowledge when and where it is needed. They are frequently associated with applications of generic technologies like IT, biotechnology and new materials, and with emerging problem-driven issues (like environmental or so-called "clean" technology).
KIBS and Innovation
Technology-based KIBS necessarily help clients deal with innovation. Traditional professional services are typically users of innovation (especially new IT to support their white-collar activities - to search for, organise and present data). They are less likely to be generators of innovations, especially technical ones; nor are they prominent as agents in the further development and diffusion of such innovations. But there are exceptions:
ï‚· Some professional services have considerable technical content. This applies to many members of groups 3 and 4 above. Their knowledge content may include technical knowledge about physical or biological systems, the properties of materials, and technologies applied in domains such as construction. Sometimes these firms play an important role in fostering diffusion of innovations among their clients and partners (e.g. architects specifying new materials to use, vets prompting research into animal diseases and treatments).
ï‚· There are often cases where traditional professional services firms come to specialise in supplying software and other products to users and/or to other firms in their own sectors. Examples include some producers of accountancy software, Web services for advertisers and their clients. Such services are liable to be increasingly influential shapers of new technology, as their professional experience with the technology grows.
Professional services may of course be innovative without necessarily focusing on technological innovation. There is much scope for innovation in terms of the products of many professional services like new types of auditing and consultancy product and process, for example.
Knowledge-Intensity
Onme way to get a handle on this is to consider the empoloyment of graduates, who have acquired knowledge in particular fields. Data from the Community Innovation Survey lets us examine this.
(Thanks to Bruce Tether and Peter Swann for the analyses)
We use UK data here to identify the services that are most knowledge-intensive in terms of two classes of graduate (Science and Engineering, and Other). For instance, the sectors where more than 2/3 of firms employ graduates are:
Heavy employers of S&E only:
 Technical Services 1
Heavy employers of OG only:
 Financial Services 1
 Professional Services (all types of service)
 Transport Services 3 (ther transport services)
Heavy employers of both types of graduate:
 InfoTech Services (both types of service);
 Technical Services 2
Those activities of the sectors that drive firms to employ graduates, also drive them to employ more graduates. At a sectoral level, the services that intensively employ S&E staff also tend to employ OGs, if less intensively. Other sectors tend to employ OGs to a greater extent than S&Es. This confirms the distinction between traditional professional KIBS and technology-based KIBS.
Weblinks
Several papers and presentatioons from me:
http://les1.man.ac.uk/cric/Ian_Miles/Pages/downloads_on_services.htm
Some links of business services:
http://www.gardencity.on.ca/projects/services.html
Services and Innovation: Dynamics of Service Innovation in the European Union
http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/epc/documents/annexg_en.pdf
I Miles and B Tether 2003 "Innovation in the Service Economy" IPTS Report no 71 February 2003 pp45-51
http://www.jrc.es/
FhG-ISI: 2003 Patents In The Service Industries
ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/indicators/docs/ind_report_fraunhofer1.pdf
Paper on German services survey analysis:
http://les1.man.ac.uk/usercgi/cric/cricpaperdl.asp?paper=dp30
Some papers from the SI4S project on services:
http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/WoPEc/data/Papers/wopstepre0696.html
http://www.step.no/Projectarea/si4s/start.htm
http://les1.man.ac.uk/prest/resarch/si4s.htm
Knowledge Intensive Business services first definition in 1994, summary of paper only -
http://www.cordis.lu/eims/src/eims-15.htm
KIBS are private firms - not public sector oprganisations like Universities or government labs (though these may provide some KIBS-like services to external clients).
They provide services to businesses - or, more precisely, they use high levels of highly specialised knowledge to provide support to business processes in other organisations.
There are two classic extemes
Traditional professional services
these make elaborate use of social and institutional knowledge.
A typical purpose of traditional professional services is helping their clients deal with complex social systems. The things they deal with include:
1) institutions especially administrative rules and regulations (e.g., legal and accountancy services);
2) less formally organised social groups and interests (e.g., marketing and issues consultancy services);
3) psychological and biological systems, (e.g., medical and veterinary services, educational and clinical psychology and psychiatry, counselling, etc.);
4) elaborate artefacts of a (traditionally) low tech nature e.g., architecture and building services).
Technology-based KIBS
Some new services are directly based on new technology applications. For instance, Web and Internet, software and computer services help their clients to use the new technologies more effectively. Other technology-based KIBS are more involved with the production and transfer of knowledge about new technology (for instance, information and training services often play such roles). Yet others are centrally focused on technology development - e.g. many technical and engineering services, especially those engaged in contract R&D and design, and some testing services.
Services exist to support users of all types of technology. But the knowledge requirements for technology users are bound to be more challenging where new technology is involved. New technologies are often complex and demanding, until ways have been found of rendering them more user-friendly. The knowledge necessary to understand, master, and utilise the new product and process opportunities provided by new technologies will be less readily available. KIBS can thus help supply knowledge when and where it is needed. They are frequently associated with applications of generic technologies like IT, biotechnology and new materials, and with emerging problem-driven issues (like environmental or so-called "clean" technology).
KIBS and Innovation
Technology-based KIBS necessarily help clients deal with innovation. Traditional professional services are typically users of innovation (especially new IT to support their white-collar activities - to search for, organise and present data). They are less likely to be generators of innovations, especially technical ones; nor are they prominent as agents in the further development and diffusion of such innovations. But there are exceptions:
ï‚· Some professional services have considerable technical content. This applies to many members of groups 3 and 4 above. Their knowledge content may include technical knowledge about physical or biological systems, the properties of materials, and technologies applied in domains such as construction. Sometimes these firms play an important role in fostering diffusion of innovations among their clients and partners (e.g. architects specifying new materials to use, vets prompting research into animal diseases and treatments).
ï‚· There are often cases where traditional professional services firms come to specialise in supplying software and other products to users and/or to other firms in their own sectors. Examples include some producers of accountancy software, Web services for advertisers and their clients. Such services are liable to be increasingly influential shapers of new technology, as their professional experience with the technology grows.
Professional services may of course be innovative without necessarily focusing on technological innovation. There is much scope for innovation in terms of the products of many professional services like new types of auditing and consultancy product and process, for example.
Knowledge-Intensity
Onme way to get a handle on this is to consider the empoloyment of graduates, who have acquired knowledge in particular fields. Data from the Community Innovation Survey lets us examine this.
(Thanks to Bruce Tether and Peter Swann for the analyses)
We use UK data here to identify the services that are most knowledge-intensive in terms of two classes of graduate (Science and Engineering, and Other). For instance, the sectors where more than 2/3 of firms employ graduates are:
Heavy employers of S&E only:
 Technical Services 1
Heavy employers of OG only:
 Financial Services 1
 Professional Services (all types of service)
 Transport Services 3 (ther transport services)
Heavy employers of both types of graduate:
 InfoTech Services (both types of service);
 Technical Services 2
Those activities of the sectors that drive firms to employ graduates, also drive them to employ more graduates. At a sectoral level, the services that intensively employ S&E staff also tend to employ OGs, if less intensively. Other sectors tend to employ OGs to a greater extent than S&Es. This confirms the distinction between traditional professional KIBS and technology-based KIBS.
Weblinks
Several papers and presentatioons from me:
http://les1.man.ac.uk/cric/Ian_Miles/Pages/downloads_on_services.htm
Some links of business services:
http://www.gardencity.on.ca/projects/services.html
Services and Innovation: Dynamics of Service Innovation in the European Union
http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/epc/documents/annexg_en.pdf
I Miles and B Tether 2003 "Innovation in the Service Economy" IPTS Report no 71 February 2003 pp45-51
http://www.jrc.es/
FhG-ISI: 2003 Patents In The Service Industries
ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/indicators/docs/ind_report_fraunhofer1.pdf
Paper on German services survey analysis:
http://les1.man.ac.uk/usercgi/cric/cricpaperdl.asp?paper=dp30
Some papers from the SI4S project on services:
http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/WoPEc/data/Papers/wopstepre0696.html
http://www.step.no/Projectarea/si4s/start.htm
http://les1.man.ac.uk/prest/resarch/si4s.htm
Knowledge Intensive Business services first definition in 1994, summary of paper only -
http://www.cordis.lu/eims/src/eims-15.htm
