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Innovation, Service Types, and Performance in Knowledge Intensive Business Services

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The Handbook of Service Innovation

Abstract

Knowledge Intensive Business Services or KIBS are defined as customized and innovative business services. In this chapter, we argue that not only innovation and customization are complementary in KIBS, but also that replication via standard and modular services determines a KIBS firm’s performance. Using fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) on a sample of 319 KIBS firms, we explored the best-performing configurations resulting from a combination of different service innovations with different service types. In doing so, we separately considered product and process innovations and four different types of services (customized, standard, standard with minor customizations, and modular). Our results emphasize the complementarity between process innovations and service standardization on a firm’s profitability, while highlighting the complementarity between process innovations, service customization, and modularity of a firm’s growth. The work described in this chapter contributes to the KIBS literature and provides deeper insights into the interaction between innovation and service types.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Nicola Cenedese for his help in the analysis of the data. This research is part of the Project of Excellence “Economics and Management of Knowledge Intensive Business Services: Innovation Processes in Services and Competitiveness of Firms and Territories.” We thank the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo for the financial support and all the researchers of the University of Padua involved in the for project for helpful discussions. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Management “M. Fanno”, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Diego Campagnolo

  2. Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy

    Anna Cabigiosu

Authors
  1. Diego Campagnolo
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  2. Anna Cabigiosu
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Correspondence to Diego Campagnolo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, Australia

    Renu Agarwal

  2. University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

    Willem Selen

  3. UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

    Göran Roos

  4. UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Roy Green

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Campagnolo, D., Cabigiosu, A. (2015). Innovation, Service Types, and Performance in Knowledge Intensive Business Services. In: Agarwal, R., Selen, W., Roos, G., Green, R. (eds) The Handbook of Service Innovation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-6589-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6590-3

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