Creativity Versus Standardization in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: A Real Trade-Off?

Marco Bettiol, Eleonora Maria and Roberto Grandinetti

Chapter 6 in Exploring Knowledge-Intensive Business Services, 2012, pp 120-136 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In the literature on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), scholars have debated the role and extent of their standardization, and two main stances have emerged. On the one hand, some studies explicitly deny the possibility of a service standardization and emphasize the relevance of customization: the value of KIBS lies in their capacity to offer tailored services capable of meeting their client’s needs concerning access to technical, commercial, or scientific knowledge (Miles, 1995; Muller and Doloreux, 2009). According to the literature on business services, it is in the nature of KIBS to differentiate their offering to suit their client’s requirements (den Hertog, 2000). On the other hand, other scholars have stressed the advantages of service standardization and specifically of KIBS (Tether et al., 2001). Through standardization, the service provider can increase productivity and adopt an industrial model of production similar to manufacturing firms. Standardization can lead to scale: service firms can increase in size and improve their growth by overcoming the Baumol’s disease problem (Baumol and Bowen, 1966).

Keywords: Operating Principle; Service Firm; Working Method; Creative Industry; Design Thinking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-00842-8_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137008428

DOI: 10.1057/9781137008428_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().