Innovation in services A topic of growing interest

Transcript:Innovation in services A topic of growing interest:
Innovation in services A topic of growing interest Services: are the larger part of employment and output (Value Added) in most industrial countries. (EU around 70%) The services sectors are important for countries productivity, economic competitiveness, and quality of life…. ..but innovation in services is important for other reasons beyond the economic importance of the “service sector”: 1) It extends beyond the services sectors to affect service activities in all sectors of the economy. 2) some services play central roles in innovation processes throughout the economy, as agents of transfer, innovation support, and sources of innovations for other sectors. A wide and varied sector Contrasts in the composition of the services sector in different countries; Huge range of different activities with very different characteristics: From hairdressing (small scale base) to FIRE (finance, insurance, and real estate services), dominated by very large firms Key sectors use advanced information technologies intensively, but other technologies are used in distributive services, which include transport in all its varieties… Social and collective services such as public administration and health and educational services are delivered largely or entirely through the state… …but the back-office operations of such bodies can be highly IT-intensive. …wide and varied sector (2/2) Technical skills range from the minimal ones used in fast food outlets and office cleaning to the professional qualifications of market researchers and architects, and the scientific and engineering credentials of staff in specialized R&D firms. Any generalizations about the nature of services and innovation in services must be qualified by numerous exceptions. Some services are more like manufacturing in terms of some parameters—some are technology-intensive (e.g. media, telecommunications)… …some work with material artifacts (e.g. rapid prototyping, repairs). And the operations of many manufacturing firms include a great many ‘‘services’’ activities (e.g. transport and logistics, office work, marketing and aftersales). Nevertheless, a set of common features characterizes many services and differentiates them from manufacturing… Wide spectrum of «tranformations» Services markets also are diverse, spanning consumers, businesses, and the public sector and its clients. The transformations effected by these services industries operate on such diverse ‘‘raw materials’’ as: human clients (as well as some other biological organisms, e.g. veterinary services), physical artifacts (they may be repaired, maintained, stored, transported, tested, integrated into larger systems . . . ), and data, symbols and information (that may be processed, stored, telecommunicated, etc. by services like financial industries as well as by computer