Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Kai Mertins, Sven Wuscher and Markus Will
If <strong>the</strong> rating <strong>of</strong> a factor is smaller than its impact on business success this leads to <strong>the</strong> conclusion that
<strong>the</strong>re is an imbalance between importance and status quo. Consequently considerable pressure to
act exists. This is most clearly for <strong>the</strong> factor motivation <strong>of</strong> employees which is seen as very influential,
but falls short in comparison to <strong>the</strong> rating <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r factors (6.6). This also applies to internal cooperation
and knowledge transfer. Thus it appears that both factors demonstrate <strong>the</strong> pressure to act.
But also <strong>the</strong> factors concerned with innovation have a relatively bad rating (product innovation: 5.7;
process innovation: 5.7). If innovations are essential for <strong>the</strong> sustainability, as <strong>of</strong>ten proclaimed in <strong>the</strong>
media and politics, <strong>the</strong> previous results from business practice must give everyone pause for thought.
Because <strong>the</strong> question is, how can enterprises face <strong>the</strong> challenges <strong>of</strong> global competition in future?
A similar picture also applies to <strong>the</strong> financial resources (6.0). For <strong>the</strong> last quarter <strong>of</strong> 2009 and <strong>the</strong> first
half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> year 2010 <strong>the</strong> ifo Institute for Economic Research reported about a credit crunch for <strong>the</strong>
commercial industry (ifo Dec. 2009; ifo May 2010). Considering <strong>the</strong>se results which can be partly
explained by <strong>the</strong> difficult conditions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial and economic crisis it is not surprising that <strong>the</strong>
participating enterprises did not rate <strong>the</strong> investor relationships very good ei<strong>the</strong>r (5.7).
5.2.2 Success Factors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Service Sector and <strong>the</strong> Production Sector
If one compares <strong>the</strong> ratings <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> enterprises from <strong>the</strong> service sector with those <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> production
sector, differences could be determined. As part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> following sector comparison only significant
differences are considered.
Figure 12: Impact and rating <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> different types <strong>of</strong> capital according to sectors
5.3 The service sector is gaining ground in knowledge-based corporate management
Significant differences in <strong>the</strong> area <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> HC show that <strong>the</strong> service sector is one step ahead <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
production sector with regard to structural and employee-related corporate development. The
participating service enterprises rate <strong>the</strong> impact and <strong>the</strong>reby <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> HC (8.3)
significantly higher than <strong>the</strong> participating production enterprises (7.9). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, <strong>the</strong> material
resources are more important to <strong>the</strong> production enterprises (6.7) than to <strong>the</strong> service enterprises (4.7).
These results ratify <strong>the</strong> dependency <strong>of</strong> production enterprises on machinery, plants and raw materials
and <strong>the</strong> capital needed to finance <strong>the</strong>se, while <strong>the</strong> service enterprises strongly depend on <strong>the</strong> abilities
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir employees. Consequently <strong>the</strong> investor relationships are considerably more important to
production enterprises than to service enterprises (+0.7).
Although material resources are <strong>of</strong> great importance for <strong>the</strong> business success <strong>of</strong> production
enterprises, <strong>the</strong>y are seen as less important than <strong>the</strong> HC. Hence <strong>the</strong> employees are <strong>the</strong> most
important type <strong>of</strong> capital in <strong>the</strong> production sector. Significant differences are to be found for <strong>the</strong> impact
and <strong>the</strong> rating <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> factors social competence and leadership ability. For service enterprises <strong>the</strong>se
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