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

Ettore Bolisani, Marco Paiola and Enrico Scarso
Table 2: Types <strong>of</strong> services delivered by KIBS subsector
4. Main findings
Type <strong>of</strong> services
delivered
KIBS subsector
ICT D&C PFS
Total
ad hoc 46.8% 87.5% 65.6% 66.9%
standard 53.2% 12.5% 34.4% 33.1%
4.1 Suppliers as sources <strong>of</strong> knowledge
The questionnaire asked how important suppliers were perceived as sources <strong>of</strong> four kinds <strong>of</strong>
knowledge, i.e. basic technological, new product development, production process and market
knowledge. We used a 1-to-5 Likert scale to indicate such importance, and grouped <strong>the</strong> companies in
three different classes on <strong>the</strong> basis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sum <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> scores given to <strong>the</strong> four kinds <strong>of</strong> knowledge
(namely: 4-9 = low importance; 10-15 = medium importance; 16-20 = high importance). Then we
analysed how this variable varied across subsectors and in relations to size.
Table 3: Importance <strong>of</strong> suppliers as sources <strong>of</strong> knowledge by KIBS subsector
Importance <strong>of</strong> suppliers as
sources <strong>of</strong> knowledge
Subsector
ICT D&C PFS
Total
Low 42.4% 24.1% 48.4% 38.1%
Medium 37.7% 56.3% 40.6% 45.0%
High 19.9% 19.6% 11.0% 16.8%
In general, <strong>the</strong> importance ascribed to suppliers as knowledge sources is quite low; <strong>the</strong> highest values
are with D&C and ICT companies (Table 3). There is an unclear correlation with size: for example, <strong>the</strong>
largest firms tend to be located on <strong>the</strong> two extremes more than <strong>the</strong> medium and smallest ones (Table
4).
Table 4: Importance <strong>of</strong> suppliers as sources <strong>of</strong> knowledge by size class
Importance <strong>of</strong> suppliers as Size class
Total
sources <strong>of</strong> knowledge
1-4 5-9 ≥10
Low 35.4% 38.7% 50.9% 38.1%
Medium 48.6% 46.2% 24.6% 45.0%
High 16.0% 15.1% 24.6% 16.8%
4.2 Networking (excluding suppliers and customers)
Ano<strong>the</strong>r question regarded how much companies resort to external collaborations for designing or
delivering <strong>the</strong>ir services. The large majority (63.2%) declares that <strong>the</strong>y don’t use external resources
(or, occasionally, <strong>the</strong>y resort to temporary collaborators). There are no appreciable differences across
subsectors, although D&C companies make use <strong>of</strong> occasional collaborators more frequently than <strong>the</strong>
o<strong>the</strong>r companies (Table 5). Two o<strong>the</strong>r points deserve a comment: first, inter-sectorial collaboration is
almost absent; second, ICT companies are <strong>the</strong> least networked. In conclusion, data seem to indicate
that managing internal knowledge resources is much more critical than managing external
contributions.
Table 5: Resort to external collaboration by KIBS subsector
KIBS subsector
Collaborations and networking
Total
ICT D&C PFS
Only internal resources 39.0% 28.8% 34.0% 33.8%
Internal resources and occasional collaborators 26.6% 33.8% 28.2% 29.5%
Collaboration with companies in <strong>the</strong> same subsector 31.2% 26.2% 27.6% 28.3%
Collaboration with companies <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r (sub)sectors 3.2% 11.2% 10.2% 8.3%
Data also suggest that large companies are more “self-sufficient” than <strong>the</strong> small ones (Table 6). In
particular 45.6% <strong>of</strong> companies with ten employees or more deliver <strong>the</strong>ir services only through <strong>the</strong> use
<strong>of</strong> internal resources. Companies that declare some kind <strong>of</strong> external networking indicate a high variety
<strong>of</strong> partners: ICT consultants (57.8%); pr<strong>of</strong>essional services (48.0%); marketing, communication or
design consultants (45.1%); technical designers or laboratories (26.6%); public agencies (12.7%),
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