Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) have aroused much interest during recent years due to their role as central actors in innovation systems. This article discusses the future prospects of KIBS on the basis of the analysis of driving forces and trends. Three driving forces characteristic of today's society seem especially relevant from the viewpoint of KIBS: the development of information and communication technologies, the globalization of the economy and the generalization of network-based business models. These driving forces provide KIBS with new business opportunities and make the continuity of the growth of the sector probable. On the hand, they pose new challenges to the working practices of KIBS and cause restructuring in the sector. Important trends in KIBS are, among others, client-specific specialization, broadening of the service content, and the generalization of consultative way of working. Along with these changes in KIBS' working practices, the relationships between sub-sectors and companies also change: the different KIBS sub-sectors converge and the position of big KIBS strengthens. The concentration trend reinforces the already strong geographical concentration of KIBS further. In order to correct the unbalanced situation, all options available to peripheral regions should be applied: importing services, supporting local supply and favoring extra-regional investments. An important `survival strategy' for small local KIBS is the building of networks, which can be used for creating new client contacts, for widening one's own expertise, and for adopting best practices.
Knowledge-Intensive
Business Services (KIBS) are expert companies that provide
services to other companies and organizations. IT services,
R&D services, technical consultancy, legal, financial
and management consultancy, and marketing communications
are typical KIBS industries (Miles et al., 1995;
Hermelin, 1997; Strambach, 2001). The role of KIBS in the
development of regional economies has aroused broad interest
during recent years. Reasons for this interest are, the
growing significance of innovation for competitiveness and
the position that KIBS holds in innovation activities. Since
the mid 1990s several studies have shown that KIBS are active
innovators, facilitators and carriers of innovations of
other companies, and nodes in innovation networks (Miles,
1999a, Werner, 2001). Due to the fact that physical proximity
favors know-how sharing, which is essential for the emergence
of innovations, KIBS have been considered to have a special
meaning in the regional context. In addition, the markets
of many KIBS are regional or local (Kautonen, 2001, Muller
and Zenker, 2001). |
