Knowledge Intensive Service Activities Research Articles

Value creation and the development of knowledge-intensive service activities in Romania’s travel agencies

Abstract This paper aims at analyzing key information regarding the value creation resulted from providing tourism services by Romanian traditional and online travel agencies in relation to the development of knowledge-intensive service activities as part of their internal operations and the usage of outsourced services. Knowledge-intensive service activities and the field of knowledge-intensive business services have gained great importance in the economy of emerging countries such as Romania. Moreover, the impact of these specialised services and activities in tourism have not been subject to many thorough domestic or worldwide researches. As a result, the study will bring a new perspective regarding the implications of innovation and investments in technology, human resources and specialized knowledge in order to develop a new form of value creation, increased customer’s confidence and high profitability for the company. In order to achieve the indicated objectives, both the theoretical and empirical studies are used. The empirical study consists in collecting secondary data such as professional reviews and dedicated studies and reports from conferences and demonstrations on the subject. Also, the conducted analysis gathers mainly quantitative but also qualitative data, by applying a particularized survey and a brief interview. The results illustrate an integrative framework of the importance gained by knowledge intensive services in the process of value-creation in a tourism agency and also the key aspects regarding the new adapted form of tourism products through dynamic packaging. This study does not only capture and details the main aspects regarding the importance of knowledge-intensive service activities in the development of tourism companies, but also highlights the main features regarding customer’s satisfaction through the concept of perceived value-in-use (PVI) and the new successful products created and provided to a complete new generation of clientele.

Ekonomik faaliyet kolu tanımlama ve sınıflandırma önerisi: bilgi yoğun iş hizmetleri (BYİH)

Bir ekonomik faaliyetin sınıflandırılması, o faaliyetin ne kadar iyi tanımlandığı ve özelliklerinin ne kadar iyi ortaya konulabildiği ile doğrudan ilişkilidir. Ekonomik faaliyet kolları ile ilgili ilk sınıflandırma 1940’lı yıllarda üçlü sektör ayrımı ile yapılmıştır. Bu sınıflandırmaya göre birincil faaliyet olarak tarım, ikincil faaliyet olarak sanayi ve üçüncül faaliyet olarak hizmet sektörü belirlenmiştir. Fakat günümüzde, teknoloji ve bilginin gelişmesi ile birçok iş kolu ortaya çıkmış ya da kendi içinde yeni iş bölümlerine ayrılmışlardır. Bu değişimden en büyük payı da hizmet sektörü almıştır. Dünyada, özellikle son 30 yılda, sanayiden hizmet sektörüne doğru yapısal bir dönüşüm yaşanmıştır. Bu dönüşüm, hizmet sektörüne olan ilginin ve talebin artmasına neden olduğu gibi, hizmet sektörünün kendi içinde bölünmesine de sebep olmuştur. Bunun sonucunda hizmet sektörünün birçok alt faaliyet kolu ortaya çıkmıştır. Son yıllarda yapılan çalışmalara bakıldığında, hizmet alt sektörlerinin farklı isimlerde ve farklı içeriklerde sınıflandırıldığı görülmektedir. OECD ve Dünya Bankası’nın hizmet sektörünü üretici, tüketici ve kamu hizmetleri olmak üzere üç alt sınıfa ayırması ve buna ilaveten az bilgi ve bilgi yoğun olarak bir ayrıma gitmesi birçok tartışmayı da beraberinde getirmiştir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, hizmet sektörü içinde bilgi yoğun iş hizmet faaliyetlerini (BYİH) temsil eden alt sektörleri tanımlamak ve sınıflamaktır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda çalışmada, bilgi yoğun iş hizmetleri üzerine yapılmış çalışmalar, hazırlanmış raporlar ve bilgi yoğun hizmetleri temsil eden sektörler içerik analizi kullanılarak irdelenmektedir. Bu kapsamda öncelikli olarak BYİH faaliyetlerinin neleri içerdiği veya içermediği ortaya konulmakta ve faaliyet alanını tanımlama önerisi getirilmektedir. Ardından bu tanımlama temel alınarak, BYİH içindeki sektörler ele alınarak BYİH faaliyetleri sınıflandırılmaktadır. Yapılan içerik analizine göre, BYİH sektörleri içinde toplamda 10 adet bilgi yoğun hizmet faaliyeti tanımlanmaktadır. BYİH faaliyetlerini tanımlama ve sınıflandırma önerisi geliştiren bu çalışma, ekonomik faaliyet kollarının değişen içeriğini ortaya koymakta ve veri sınıfları için de önemli bir altlık sağlamaktadır.

The role of knowledge-intensive service activities on inducing innovation in co-opetition strategies: lessons from the maritime cluster of the Algarve region

The formalisation of co-opetition strategies by clusters encourages the maintenance of a collaborative mindset, but only if companies and other cluster members are able to deal with the apparent contradiction involving competitive cooperation. One way of increasing the efficiency of the open innovation processes increasingly adopted refers to the use of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISAs). Through enquiries carried out over a sample of 127 firms of the maritime cluster of the Algarve, we evaluate: the importance and current degree of consolidation of co-opetition dynamics inside the maritime cluster of the Algarve and the firms' perception towards their relevance. The role played by the activities based on knowledge-intensive business services on inducing and facilitating those co-opetition dynamics capable of triggering innovation within the cluster. A better understanding of the ways in which KISA contribute to innovative activities in the context of co-opetition dynamics inside clusters may lead to more effective public policy measures. As major outcomes of this study, we highlight that co-opetitive relationships must be constructed and managed through the enhancement of certain critical dimensions of firms' competitive strategies, inter alia, those based upon the development of more intensive competitive collaboration aimed at technological innovations and increased technological diversity.

The effect of external KISA on innovation in manufacturing firms

Manufacturing firms increasingly rely on externally supplied knowledge and services, which motivate many of them to pay increased attention to external knowledge-intensive service activities (KISA). This article aims to increase understandings of how and through which mechanisms external KISA can facilitate the generation of innovations by manufacturing firms. Results from this study of Chinese manufacturing firms and KISA suggest that knowledge integration (including knowledge combination and knowledge allocation) mediates between external KISA and innovation.

Graduate Employment in the Knowledge Society Norwegian Master's Level Graduates

In this article, we intend to describe how the increased supply of graduates with a master's level education in humanities, law, economics and science and technology (S&T) are being utilised in the knowledge society. We compare employment for graduates in 2005/07 with employment for graduates in 1989/91, according to economic activity, sector and to some degree occupations (information-related occupations). We also give an indication of the competence level in these different work areas by looking at the level of wages. In the analysis, we have only included graduates who thought that they had made some use of their education. The results show that the main bulk of the increased number of graduates has been absorbed by knowledge-intensive economic activities. Especially important were the typical business sector economic activities, such as “professional and technical services” and “information and communication”. Of the growth in recruitment, 43 % occurred within these two economic activities, where the wage level was higher than that in higher education (HE), R&D and public administration, indicating that the skill level is no lower than in these economic activities. Also, other types of knowledge-intensive service activities had a large increase in recruitment, and in 2005/2007, such economic activities recruited 44 % of graduates. While recruitment to the traditional academic sector, the education system, research and development, and public administration also accounted in total for a considerable part of the increased recruitment, the proportion of graduates being employed in these economic activities was significantly reduced. The proportion of graduates working in low-skill economic activities remained roughly the same. The business sector absorbed three quarters of the growth in the supply of graduates. Finally, using information on occupation, the analysis also shows that one third of the growth in recruitment consisted of information-related jobs in the information sector or elsewhere, generally considered to be high-skilled work.

The Knowledge Economy at Work: Skills and Innovation in Knowledge Intensive Service Activities edited by Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Ian Miles and Tamara Weyman

The Knowledge Economy at Work: Skills and Innovation in Knowledge Intensive Service Activities edited by Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Ian Miles and Tamara Weyman

Is innovation in cities a matter of knowledge-intensive services? An empirical investigation

The presence of large cities in a region represents a potential for regional innovation capacity: cities are in fact expected to generate dynamic agglomeration economies and knowledge spillovers. The paper adds to previous analyses on this topic by investigating whether the linkage between the presence of cities in the region and the innovative performance is mediated by the urban industrial structure. In fact, a positive correlation is likely to exist between the presence of large cities in a region and its innovative performance. Such a relationship could also depend on the presence of knowledge-intensive service, rather than on advanced manufacturing activities. In order to verify this statement, we classify European NUTS2 regions both from an industrial perspective, as well as by spatial typologies. We integrate this classification with a novel data set on regional innovation, based on the Community Innovation Survey. On this basis, geographical and descriptive analyses of regional innovation patterns are developed and explained. The descriptive results support our expectations. Regions hosting large urban areas are the most innovative, and this statement is reinforced in regions characterized by specialization in knowledge-intensive services. The simultaneous presence of advanced manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service activities generates synergic effects, fostering innovative performance.

Innovating IS management by enhancing knowledge intensive service activities (KISA): the study of two cases in the banking sector

Knowledge intensive service activities (KISA) are present in all sectors and favour innovation because the exchanges and the interactions of internal or external experts and players disseminate knowledge and thus build the basis for innovation ability. 'Soft' factors and KISA related to the development of organisation and human resources have to be carefully dealt with when developing IS-ICT companies. These issues are explored by presenting two cases taken from the IS banking sector. One describes how a deep change in the performance appraisal of employees helped a supplier of outsourced ICT services develop its outsourcing philosophy and market. The other case concerns the design and implementation of the Competence Centre of the Finance Division of a large Italian software company. The discussion shows how IS-ICT suppliers, sensitive to the 'soft' aspects in their businesses, who choose 'loosely structured' and 'relation intensive' organisational solutions, seem to serve their clients more effectively.

A state-driven modeling approach to human interactions for knowledge intensive services

Knowledge intensive service activities have become to play a fundamentally important role in various industrial fields. Human workers generally undertake complex operations relying heavily on professional knowledge in service processes to develop and deliver the knowledge intensive services. That means the ability of humans to create, disseminate, or utilize the knowledge is the dominant factor in the processes. Therefore, the processes should be managed in a human-oriented way. In order to help humans work together, a strong representation of processes should be provided to facilitate them to clearly understand who they should interact with, which resources are exchanged, and what activities need to be performed. Human Interaction Management (HIM) has been suggested to comprehensively support the human-oriented processes, but it cannot provide a way to structure and visualize the interaction works although the interaction is the most basic nature of human works. Therefore, this paper presents a state-driven approach to modeling human interactions which clearly visualizes the interactions so that human workers can be guided through it. However, it cannot be expected for human workers to follow the guidelines completely. They continuously and dynamically redefine their processes towards the way that they want throughout the life of the processes. To support the dynamic human work behavior, this paper also presents a hybrid modeling methodology that consists of the top-down specification of interaction models for guideline modeling and the bottom-up evolution of the models for flexible enactment. The suggested methodology for human interactions based on the state-driven modeling approach provides a way to effectively manage the complex interactions in a human-oriented way.

Knowledge-intensive service activities in the success of the Australian mining industry

No other industry in Australia has achieved a greater significance in economic development terms as mining. The mineral industries have built a national infrastructure throughout Australia for more than a century and Australia's minerals boom has produced generations of mining technology services (MTS) companies. This paper discusses the role of MTS firms in the transformation of the mining industry into the knowledge economy. Results from a study of Australian MTS and mining firms suggest that innovation results from the interaction of these firms through knowledge-intensive service activities.

The role of knowledge‐intensive service activities (KISA) in basic agro‐food processes innovation: The case of orange packers in Eastern Spain

Summary The relevance of innovation in services has been outlined by the knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS) concept, which has been empirically and theoretically developed in the context of service innovation. The conceptual and methodology approach of knowledge‐intensive service activities (KISA) links the production of knowledge to innovative activities, and has become a relevant focus for the analysis of innovation within a firm. Though relatively new, it has been given a great deal of attention by practitioners and academics in the last five years. This paper will explore, analyze, and compare the ways in which knowledge‐intensive activities occur in a small cluster of mature and low‐tech industries: orange and lemon selection in Spain. The paper aims to assess the impact of KISA on the firm's innovation and performance, as well as to analyze whether KISA occurrence is correlated with certain characteristics of firms such as size, organizational profile, market focus, and other characteristics. A model correlating these variables will additionally be proposed and validated.

Application of the KISA concept to innovation dynamics and its impact on firms’ performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the analysis of firms’ innovative activities from the knowledge‐intensive service activities (KISA) point of view and analyse their relation to the firms’ competitive performance in the case of a mature industry, the Spanish ceramic tile cluster.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a field survey. Through a selection of variables multivariable tests were applied to map the industry from the KISA standpoint and evaluate the impact of certain knowledge intensive service activities on innovation and performance.FindingsInternal and external knowledge‐intensive service activities were related to their output in terms of innovation, competitive advantages and economic performance.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research must consider and segment customers, suppliers, and other firms in the industry as other sources of KIBS.Practical implicationsUnderstanding how firms access and employ the variety of innovation‐related KISA available to them in different industries, and at different times, will help policy makers to design targeted policies and programs to actively stimulate innovation across them. For firms, KISA offers a strategic choice in their innovation objectives.Originality/valueThe present analysis contribution to KISA validates a mathematical model to simulate the relation between KISA and the competitive advantage of the firm in the case of a mature medium‐tech industry.

Regional Concentration of the Knowledge-based Economy in the EU: Towards a Renewed Oligocentric Model?

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Knowledge-based Economy spatial distribution across the European Union (EU) regions (NUTS II), linking recent research approaches on innovation and structural change with approaches to regional economics. As a means of conducting this research, we classify economic activities according to six sectors based on their knowledge/technology intensity. Our results show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher the concentration level of the activity. We find that some service activities (those considered knowledge intensive) have similar concentration levels to those operating in high or medium tech manufacturing. With regard to specialization, the most outstanding result is the strong presence of high and medium knowledge intensive service activities in metropolitan/capital regions. In general, our results reinforce the notion that an oligocentric model persists in Europe, with the southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing, the south-east of England leading in high knowledge-intensive services, and with the mid-core model exemplified by the European metropolitan archipelago (particularly capital cities) in both northern and southern Europe.

Towards the development of a knowledge management practices survey for application in knowledge intensive organisations

Various surveys of Knowledge Management Practices (KMPs) in private firms show how an increasing awareness of Knowledge Management (KM) is a critical determinant of an organisation’s competitiveness. While private sector strategies favouring internal knowledge sharing and external knowledge protection often provide strategic advantage, public sector research organisations such as South Africa’s science councils operate in an environment where, for reasons of wider public interest, transparency is encouraged and knowledge is rendered widely accessible. Unfortunately, however, little has been done to develop rigorous measurements of KMPs in such knowledge intensive organisations (KIOs) that primarily engage in knowledge intensive service activities. To complicate matters further, the majority of studies have been inter-organisational and multi-sectoral, focusing on large organisations in the private sector. Few studies have measured perceptions of KMPs amongst employees of a single organisation and even fewer have focused on KMPs within the public sector. This paper will discuss the theoretical and methodological approach used in the development of a survey aimed at measuring employee perceptions of KMPs within the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), one of South Africa’s largest public KIOs dedicated to ‘social science research that makes a difference.’ Principal component analysis of the survey data revealed six factors or constructs applicable to the measurement of KMPs. The results validate the survey instrument and offer a contribution toward the development of a KMP measurement instrument that may be applied across other KIOs in South Africa.

Knowledge-intensive service activities in software business

In this study we focus on knowledge-intensive services used by small and medium-sized companies in the software industry. Our study explores the sources, use and perceived importance of different types of knowledge-intensive services in software business. In addition to revealing the use of commercial privately or publicly produced knowledge-intensive business services, the results of this study indicate the remarkable proportion and strategic role of non-commercial knowledge-intensive service activities that are co-produced in network partnerships. These activities are accomplished in networks in order to mutually generate or transfer knowledge between companies, customers, subcontractors or authorities of the industry, and the knowledge itself is not an object of trade.

New perspectives on knowledge‐intensive services and innovation

.Knowledge‐intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge‐based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge‐intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge‐intensive business services) sector as input in innovation processes. The other approach focuses on the role of knowledge‐intensive service activities (KISA) in innovation processes. The latter approach regards a wider set of players as potentially important knowledge‐intensive service providers than just KIBS firms, it focuses on knowledge exchange beyond market relations, and it emphasizes the mix and match of internal and external knowledge‐intensive services. This paper analyses the relevance of the two approaches by studying the use of knowledge‐intensive services in two Norwegian industries dominated by different knowledge bases, that is, the aquaculture and the software industry, respectively. Empirical studies in the two industries demonstrate that the KISA approach certainly brings new elements into the investigation of the role of knowledge‐intensive services in innovation activity. The approach focuses on how knowledge exchange occurs (in static or dynamic ways), and how it relates to firms' own innovation processes. However, innovation studies can also benefit from differentiating more between different types of firms, for example, firms in different phases of their life cycle.

Role and significance of KISA in the innovation of the software industry

This paper discusses how Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) contribute to the innovation process in the software sector, and whether the necessary conditions for their development exist. In this way, it gives information on how firms use services towards a more effective innovation-related policy approach. Inter-country comparisons of KISA and innovation-related programmes and policies will create lessons on important nation-specific features of KISA and of international best practice. Understanding how software firms access and use the variety of innovation-related KISA available to them will help policy makers in the design of targeted policies and programmes to actively stimulate innovation in the software industry.

KISA in innovation of Irish software firms

The main purpose of this research is to analyse whether Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) are important for the innovation process of the Irish software sector and, if so, whether the necessary conditions for their development exist. In order to achieve this objective the paper is divided into three main parts. The first part shows which KISA are performed, where they are sourced from and how they integrate with each other to generate the innovation processes along the product cycle of Irish software firms. The second part summarises the main barriers for innovation and the principal Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mechanisms, while the last section draws some main conclusions.

KISA in innovation of Australian software firms

This paper discusses the critical role that activities directed to mix, match and transform knowledge-intensive services play in innovation by software firms. The paper draws on the analysis of the nature of innovation processes undertaken by Australian software firms; how businesses innovate and what role Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) play in the innovation process. The findings are based on an online survey of 54 software companies, 41 semi-structured interviews and two in-depth case studies with specialised software companies in the mining and tourism industries.

Inside the software firm: co-production of knowledge and KISA in the innovation process

This paper discusses Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) as the context where co-production of knowledge is happening in the firm. Other elements in the innovation process of the firm such as KIBS, RTOs and networks where the firm is embedded are also discussed. The paper argues that the analysis of KISA provides a useful framework for understanding the innovation system that co-production of knowledge provides today to firms. Understanding the specific characteristics and functionalities of KISA within the firm's innovation system might constitute a competitive advantage for firms or clusters of firms.