Abstract
The recognition of the relevance of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) is becoming especially acute in the European Union and even more important for many emerging economies. The objective of this paper is to explore what are the differences in marketing strategy to sustain the competitiveness of KIBS in the local and global markets in the last five years. In addition, this research compares what are the differences between the technology-based (t-KIBS) and professional-based (p-KIBS) business services. The empirical evidence is based on quantitative and firm-level data gathered through an email questionnaire which yielded 128 qualified responses from the small enterprises in Czech Republic. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests to compare the differences between the two groups of enterprises. The empirical evidence displays a diversity between t-KIBS and p-KIBS in usage of marketing policy such as pricing policy, brand or company presentation as well as the markets they operate on in the last five years. The research contributions of this study are twofold. First, the results have implications for managers involved in business development of service industry and second, results could be useful for government efforts to support the development (export) activities of KIBS as a heterogeneous category.
Highlights
It is well known, that the knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) as a small proportion of all services, is significant in terms of economic benefits and as the key part of the growth in value added, employment and labour productivity [1]
The research question for the purpose of this research is “Are there differences in marketing development strategy between the technology-based (t-KIBS) and professional KIBS according served markets?” From this question there was defined null hypothesis that there are no differences between p-KIBS and technology-based KIBS (t-KIBS) and “there is correlation between marketing development strategy with served target markets of KIBS enterprises”
We divided a geographical market served by KIBS into five dimensions: local, regional, national, EU member states, outside of EU according their percentage of total sales/turnover
Summary
That the knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) as a small proportion of all services, is significant in terms of economic benefits and as the key part of the growth in value added, employment and labour productivity [1]. In the Czech Republic, the importance of the manufacturing industry prevails, which is reflected in the relatively lower share of market services and the KIBS in the structure of the Czech economy. This segment represents a facilitator of knowledge, external information, and an innovation to other business clients from private and public sector especially manufacturing sector [5]. The interconnection between KIBS and the private manufacturing sector contributes to the many benefits of both KIBS and the manufacturing sector in enhancing their competitive edge and innovation [2]
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