INNOVATION: THE GRAND CHALLENGE - Imperial College London

Towards more effective knowledge transfer
in the services sector
Richard Adams (Cranfield University)
A number of studies show that knowledge created in public research institutions can contribute positively to
the innovation activities of firms in the private sector. As a result, it is important that the mechanisms are
found to ensure this knowledge, derived from public research institutions, can be transferred effectively into
the world of practice.
Richard Adams
Studies exploring the transfer of knowledge generated in universities into the world of practice have tended to
focus on the manufacturing industry and on some of the more formal transfer channels, such as the use of
patents and contractual relationships.
Results from national surveys, however, indicate that proportionately more services sector firms employ
university-generated knowledge (UGK) in support of their innovation activities than firms in the manufacturing
industry, although the services sector is less likely to make use of patents and other of the more formal
research collaborations investigated in previous studies
This research addresses three related questions. First we asked: Which knowledge transfer channels do the
service industries prefer to access UGK? And with respect to innovation activity, which knowledge transfer
channels are most important to the service industries?
Knowing the answers to these two questions should make it possible to look for congruence between
academics’ preferred dissemination methods and users’ preferred channels, and improve the effectiveness of
that transfer. However, the current research does not lose sight of the fact that UGK is one of the sources that
organisations, regardless of sector, least frequently turn to when searching for external knowledge in support of
their innovation activity. Consequently, a third question is also examined: How do potential users in the services
sector perceive UGK and what are the implications of those perceptions for its wider use?
Cranfield
Management
Research Institute,
which houses the
School of
Management’s
twelve research
centres.
The context for the study was the UK business consulting industry. Consultancies were chosen as the focus for
the study because consulting is a knowledge-intensive industry in which a firm’s ability to identify and exploit
knowledge resources to create solutions for clients is a main source of competitive advantage. Data collection
was by means of a survey of a sample of business consulting firms and case studies of exemplars of transfer
channel usage.
We adopted a collaborative research design which, as well as providing the opportunity to validate results
within the context of practice, incorporates practitioners into the research process. This approach ensures that
the thematic focus remains relevant to the needs of practitioners and maximises the opportunity for the results
of the research to be disseminated into practice. To this end, we have collaborated closely with the Institute of
Business Consulting.
Studies exploring the transfer of knowledge
generated in universities into the world of practice
have tended to focus on the manufacturing industry.
Innovation: The Grand Challenge
Results from the Innovation and Productivity Grand Challenge
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