Sectoral Patterns Of Technological Change In Services

This article provides a comprehensive picture of the characteristics of innovation in services, using the results of the 1993–95 Italian innovation survey in services. Technological change does play a role in services: around one third of service firms have introduced a technological innovation in the period 1993–95. Process innovation, innovative investment and the acquisition and internal development of software represent the most important channels through which service firms innovate. R&D activities represent an important innovation source only for a small number of science and technology-based service industries. The sectoral analysis highlights the variety of innovative patterns, which should discourage any simple generalization about innovation in services. Accordingly, a sectoral taxonomy is proposed in which service industries are clustered according to the overall innovative performance of firms, the nature of the innovation activities carried out, the different knowledge bases underlying the innovation processes, and the different patterns of interaction through which service firms innovate.

[1]  Jon Sundbo.  Management of Innovation in Services , 1997 .

[2]  Rinaldo Evangelista,et al.  NATURE AND IMPACT OF INNOVATION IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY : SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE ITALIAN INNOVATION SURVEY , 1997 .

[3]  K. Pavitt.  Sectoral Patterns of Technical Change : Towards a Taxonomy and a Theory : Research Policy , 1984 .

[4]  C. Antonelli.  microdynamics of technological change , 1994 .

[5]  F. Gallouj.  Innovation in the Service Economy , 2002 .

[6]  I. Miles.  Services in the new industrial economy , 1993 .

[7]  Rinaldo Evangelista.  Knowledge and Investment: The Sources of Innovation in Industry , 1999 .

[8]  Faïz Gallouj,et al.  Innovation in services , 1997 .

[9]  Giorgio Sirilli,et al.  Technological innovation in services and manufacturing: results from Italian surveys , 1998 .

[10]  Keith Smith,et al.  Measuring Innovation in European Industry , 1998 .

[11]  J. B. Quinn,et al.  Intelligent Enterprise: A Knowledge and Service Based Paradigm for Industry , 1992 .

[12]  A. Kleinknecht,et al.  An innovation survey in services, the experience with CIS questionnaire in the Netherlands , 1995 .

[13]  R. Barras.  Towards a theory of innovation in services , 1986 .

[14]  Giorgio Sirilli,et al.  Measuring innovation in services , 1995 .

[15]  Rinaldo Evangelista,et al.  Innovation and employment in Italian manufacturing industry , 1996 .

[16]  B. Preissl.  Innovationen im Dienstleistungssektor , 1998 .

[17]  B. Lundvall,et al.  Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-Based Economy , 1996 .

[18]  Alison Young,et al.  Measuring R&D in the Services , 1996 .

[19]  P. Cohendet,et al.  Evaluation of the Community innovation survey (CIS) - Phase I. European Innovation Monitoring System (EIMS). EIMS Publication No. 11 , 1993 .

[20]  Luc Soete,et al.  Technology, productivity, and job creation , 1996 .

[21]  Rinaldo Evangelista,et al.  Embodied and disembodied innovative activities: evidence from the Italian innovation survey , 1996 .