Knowledge Intensive Services' Suppliers and Clients

Preface
KIBS are Knowledge Intensive Business Services firms, who are characterised by
such indicators of knowledge-intensity as high levels of staff with degrees and
professional qualifications. Some KIBS are very much based on scientific and
technological knowledge, and these often play a role in technological innovation
processes in their clients. Other KIBS are more concerned with such topics as
marketing, legal and administrative affairs, finance, etc.: these may provide
important contributions to organisational innovation, and can also support
technological innovation in many respects. Though neglected until recently, a
broad spectrum of analysts now agree that KIBS play important roles in innovation
systems.
The paper first reviews the contributions of several academic disciplines to
understanding the roles and impacts of KIBS. Various lines of research, especially
from economics and geography, converge towards the conclusion that KIBS do on
balance have a positive impact on the performance of user firms, sectors and
regions. The ways in which this is effected – through knowledge-based activities,
for example through KIBS fusing together client- or sector-specific knowledge
with more generic knowledge, and acting as agents for diffusion of techniques and
good practice, point us towards the concerns of innovation studies. Sociological
analysis has been less concerned with the impacts of KIBS, but raises important
questions about the formation of professional knowledge and the networks and
communities of practice in which it operates. Management studies have begun to
examine the ways in which firms can deal with their KIBS inputs.
The paper moves on to consider the contributions that have emerged from
innovation studies and related work over recent years. Here there has been
considerable effort to grapple with just what it is that KIBS do with their
knowledge, and how this is utilised for, and by, clients. This literature puts much
focus on the relationships between KIBS suppliers and their clients, and notes that
there are very different types of relationship established in different contexts.
There are generic, or at least widespread, issues to do with the formation and
nurturance of such relationships, with the important role of trust, with the need for
KIBS professionals to combine different social and technical skills, and with the
requirements for clients to be able to manage the relationships and the inputs they
obtain from them. However, the different varieties of relationships are liable to
have very different implications for innovation processes and for such issues as the
tradability and locational aspects of KIBS.