Collaborative value creation (otherwise known as value co-creation) is a concept that has been explored over the years in the context of knowledge - intensive business services (KIBS) such as management consulting, engineering services, etc. A body of studies has investigated how to foster value co-creation among KIBS providers, clients, and partners during KIBS engagements. Knowledge processes have been identified as an important enabler of value co-creation. In organizations more generally, knowledge management systems and related ICT tools (referred to as KM tools in this research) have been identified to support knowledge processes. However, the support provided to knowledge processes in the specific context of KIBS engagements is yet to be explored. Through the development of a conceptual framework that examines the linkages between KM tools, knowledge processes, and value co-creation in the context of KIBS engagements, this research investigates how knowledge management systems provide support to value co-creation in KIBS engagements. We adopt a multiple case study research design. Using eight semi-structured interviews, we obtained data on knowledge processes and KM tools in KIBS engagements. The result is a refined framework that illustrates the type of KM tools currently used in KIBS engagements, the knowledge processes they support, and their relationship to value co-creation. We also present a discussion of how this framework can be applied practically. At a conceptual level, this study contributes to the field of KIBS by identifying how exactly knowledge processes provide support to value co-creation processes in KIBS engagements, and how KM tools provide support to knowledge processes. At a practical level, this study contribute s to the field of knowledge management systems design by providing guidance on the KM tools that can meet the specific needs of service providers, clients, and partners in the domain of knowledge-intensive services.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-07-11T16:18:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabiano Cardoso De Oliveira_.pdf: 3369336 bytes, checksum: b4dbb34d07459c52ebd7feff4185c041 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-11T16:18:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabiano Cardoso De Oliveira_.pdf: 3369336 bytes, checksum: b4dbb34d07459c52ebd7feff4185c041 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Prover serviços públicos com qualidade e eficiência tem levado o governo a interferir nas operações de empresas privadas através de programas, contratos e parcerias. No entanto, estudos sobre os impactos destas intervenções sobre a eficiência em operações não foram encontrados na literatura. Esta pesquisa analisa os impactos do programa PRONATEC na eficiência de duas empresas de serviços intensivos em conhecimento, uma participante do programa e outra que não participante. Os impactos foram analisados longitudinalmente por um período de sete anos utilizando de maneira associada à Análise Envoltória de Dados e Análise de Variância em um estudo de caso em duas empresas do ramo de ensino técnico profissionalizante do Rio Grande do Sul, do período de 2009 a 2015, com foco em analisar a produção de resultado operacional e formação de alunos. A partir dos resultados comprovam-se os impactos da ação do Governo sobre a eficiência nas operações de empresas privadas. Finalmente, o estudo demonstra e suporta empiricamente a relação entre a participação ou não em programas governamentais e a eficiência em operações de empresas prestadoras de serviços intensivos em conhecimento. / Providing public services with quality and efficient has induced the government to interfere in the private companies’ operations by programs, contracts and partnerships. However, researches about the impacts of these interventions about the efficiency in operations were not found in the literature. This project studies the impact of the PRONATEC program in the efficiency of two knowledge-intensive services companies, one of them is a program participator, and the other it is not a program participator. The impacts were longitudinally analyzed for seven years, using an associated way the Data Envelopment Analysis and the Analysis of Variance in a case study in two companies which are focused in vocational technical education from Rio Grande do Sul, from 2009 to 2015, focused on analyze the production of operational result and training of students. From the results, it is verified the impact of the Government action on the efficiency in the operations of companies that provides knowledge-intensive services.

Interactions are of critical importance in business-to-business contexts, and value seems to be influenced by the interactions between the supplier, customer and other third parties where these interactions co-creates value. However, as the literature has mostly focused on the positive value co-creation, the interactions that result in failure is instead co-destroying value. This thesis is therefore going to study the negative interaction outcome, value co-destruction, in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms from a supplier perspective, where interactions are shown to be critical, to explore proactive practices that could be utilized in order to prevent value co-destruction between the customer and the KIBS firm as well as practices to recover from value codestruction. Through a qualitative multiple-case study, the data was collected from KIBS representatives in the IT-industry in Sweden, that provided empirical data to further nuance the phenomenon. Customer education, unveiling business opportunities, customer surveys, and business events was discovered to be used for proactively preventing value co-destruction, where the authors also found the time aspect of the relationship between value co-creation and value co-destruction to be of importance in preventing miscommunications that result in value co-destruction. Therefore, the authors of this thesis argue that miscommunications and acknowledgment of the miscommunication that co-destroys value often occurs at different time points, where the proactive practices might be targeted towards preventing the miscommunication or targeted towards the recovery from the value co-destruction.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-06-01T17:08:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 processo_prestacao.pdf: 3293008 bytes, checksum: a8fb43174d74dd2be5eb011e9b9e48d7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-01T17:08:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 processo_prestacao.pdf: 3293008 bytes, checksum: a8fb43174d74dd2be5eb011e9b9e48d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-21 / Nenhuma / As empresas prestadoras de serviços têm um grande destaque na economia brasileira, apresentando uma participação no Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) em torno de 70%, algo muito parecido com a maioria dos países desenvolvidos. Muitos destas empresas prestam serviço para outras organizações e, com isso, contam com características que lhes são particulares. Dentro deste contexto, os serviços empresariais intensivos em conhecimento atuam com grande relevância. Estes provedores utilizam-se do conhecimento que detém internamente para construir soluções customizadas a cada comprador, disseminando esse conhecimento em forma de aplicações práticas úteis ao dia-a-dia organizacional de seus clientes. Alguns destes provedores está envolto em ambientes de alta tecnologia, diferenciados por exigir altos investimentos financeiros e um nível ótimo de monitoria de mercado. Esta dissertação analisou a díade provedor-comprador neste contexto de prestação de serviços empresariais intensivos em conhecimento e envoltos em um ambiente de alta tecnologia a fim de desenhar um modelo de gestão capaz de auxiliar administradores e pesquisadores da área de operações em suas atividades profissionais. Para tal, utilizou-se primeiramente de um conjunto de estudos para compor um modelo conceitual inicial. Na sequência, efetuou uma revisão sistemática da literatura que contou com 106 artigos científicos como forma de detalhamento do modelo delineado previamente. Logo mais, realizou um estudo de caso da díade provedor-cliente para o levantamento de dados empíricos que fossem capazes de levar a uma discussão prática do modelo refinado. Nesta etapa foram entrevistados oito clientes empresariais e quatro representantes de um provedor de serviços metrológicos, ambiente caracterizado por utilização de alta tecnologia e alto conhecimento. Após a análise de conteúdo das entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas foi levantada uma série de evidências empíricas que sugeriram a real aplicabilidade do modelo conceitual delineado. A pesquisa se encerrou discutindo possíveis implicações gerenciais e acadêmicas e sugerindo temas para continuidade dos estudos. / The service providers have a major highlight in the Brazilian economy, with a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around 70%, something very similar to most developed countries. Many of these companies provide service to other organizations and, therefore, have characteristics that are peculiar to them. Within this context, knowledge intensive business services act with great relevance. These providers are used internally holds that knowledge to build customized solutions to every buyer, disseminating this knowledge in the form of useful practical applications to organizational day-to-day buyers. Some of these providers are encased in high-tech environments, distinguished by high capital investment and require a great level of monitoring market. This dissertation analyzed the buyer - provider dyad in this context to provide knowledge intensive business services and wrapped in a high tech environment in order to design a management model able to assist administrators and researchers operating in their professional activities. For this purpose, we used a first set of studies to compose an initial conceptual model. Following, conducted a systematic literature review that included 106 scientific articles as a way of detailing the model previously outlined. Soon, conducted a case study of provider - customer dyad to survey empirical data they were able to lead to a practical discussion of the refined model. At this stage, we interviewed eight business customers and four representatives of a provider metrological services environment characterized by use of high technology and high knowledge. After content analysis of semistructured interviews was raised one set of empirical evidence that suggested the actual applicability of the outlined conceptual model. The search ended with a discussion about managerial and academic implications and suggesting topics for continuing studies.

Small businesses are an important part of innovation, competitiveness and economic development. Support systems such as business incubators have emerged with the purpose of helping these startups develop. The startups which are in focus in this thesis operate in different industries, in technology-based industries where commercialization and growth is in focus, to creative industries which focus on developing individual talent and creativity. The characteristics and core of the businesses differ, giving them different business logics by which the startups operate. The business logic leads the startups to face different challenges, which the thesis considers to regard liabilities of smallness, liabilities of newness and liabilities of uniqueness as well as organizing.  These variations give the startups differences in how they operate and hence, also a need for different types of support given by business incubators. Business incubator support is in the thesis categorized into three components of Networks, Infrastructure and Business Services, as suggested in a triad model of Carvalho & Galina (2015). As varying business logics makes a difference on what type of value startups produce, it is important to study the relationship between these logics and the support provided by an incubator. It is important in order to understand how incubators can adapt their support more effectively to help entrepreneurs overcome their challenges.  The thesis purpose is to broaden the understanding of how business logics and challenges of startups adhere to the industry they are in, and how the support given by business incubators can help the businesses to overcome challenges associated with these business logics. The research design was qualitative, and data was collected by performing six semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs within creative and technology-based industries, enrolled at business incubators with these specializations.  The study results in a proposed model, giving extension to the original triad model by Carvalho & Galina (2015). In the proposed model, new dimensions of the support system as well as the nature of the startups’ business logics, and challenges are addressed. The proposed model and the study’s results may act as a guiding framework for future research in the field, aiming to gain a better understanding of the reality of startups with different business logics.

我國經濟發展早期建立於價格低廉且素質高的勞力密集生產，政府的出口導向貿易政策，促使台灣成為製造業為發展重心的經濟型態，台灣經濟成長動力來源遂以製造部門為主，但在面對全球知識經濟發展的競爭壓力下，謀求轉型升級成為亟欲探討的課題。另外，全球化的發展趨勢下，開發中國家擁有大量的廉價勞力，在比較利益的原則之下，使得台灣長期以來依賴製造與出口為經濟重心的發展模式受到了相當程度的影響。因此在製造部門為了維持企業競爭優勢而將工廠外移的隱憂下，台灣如何以知識密集服務業造就下一波經濟成長的動力，此為亟欲探討的課題。 服務業占我國經濟結構比重已超過三分之二，但是我國服務業之整體知識密集度仍有提升的空間。長期以來我們對於創新的認知大多集中於製造業的範圍，忽略了服務業創新與創新過程中服務所扮演的重要角色，因此，我國對於研發與創新的理解也須跳脫硬體和製造的層次。 本研究由服務系統與創新構面的角度切入，探討選取個案中的服務創新因子，並歸類出其創新驅動的形式。研究問題如下： 1.創新服務核心技術應用在服務系統發展的關鍵點為何？ 2.知識密集服務業的創新成果與服務創新之間有哪些重要的構面？構面之間的互動對創新成果的影響為何？ 3.知識密集服務業的創新驅動可能因子有哪幾種形式？ 本研究以個案訪談及蒐集次及資料為主要分析來源，本研究選取對象，以策略性服務業科專計畫中，工研院能資所開發的全溫層保鮮系統服務為主，其中包括工研院能資所開發技術的過程，以及大榮貨運、台灣宅配通、中華郵政三家移轉服務系統的宅配業者。而本研究主要結論如下： 1.知識密集服務業創新服務技術發展的關鍵，在於與服務業者的共同開發合作。 2.服務創新構面中新服務觀念、新交付系統、新顧客介面等三構面會影響服務創新的成果，服務創新構面需互相配合。 3.服務創新構面中技術選擇不具關鍵性，服務決定技術，而非技術決定服務，但技術採用可加速新服務創新的實行。 4.服務創新驅動因子來自供應商、服務業者、客戶端。不同創新驅動因子有不同創新驅動形式，如客戶導向的創新驅動、供應商支配的創新驅動、服務業者的創新驅動與共同合作開發的創新驅動。 5.技術層次與對服務的認知決定服務創新驅動的形式。

A service can be traded either directly between a consumer and provider of the service or a service can serve as an input into the manufacturing of various products and other services that are traded. Trade in services has therefore become an essential part of global trade and contributes significantly to global, as well as South African economic growth, development and productivity. Service trade has furthermore been growing at a greater rate than trade in manufactured goods. The growth of services trade can be attributed to growth in goods trade, technological advances, rising per capita incomes, micro-economic reforms, as well as increased consumer and business demand, and technological change. According to the GATS’ (General Agreement on Trade in Services) services sectorial classification list, the service sector can be classified into twelve major categories and these sectors can further be divided into 160 sub-sectors. One of the sub-sectors that have been identified that has significant growth potential globally and for South Africa is the sub-sector, ‘other business’ services. This sub-sector falls under the sector, business services. Trade data revealed that this sub-sector is one of the top three traded service categories internationally, as well as for South Africa. For the purpose of this study the focus was specifically on ‘other business’ services provided by members of the BEPEC (Built Environmental Professional Export Council). The services performed by the members of the BEPEC are: consulting engineering, architectural, quantity surveying, and construction project managing services. These services are inputs into the manufacturing or construction of human creations such as buildings, structures, dams, roads etc. Trade barriers, however, hinder the free flow of services from the service provider to customers in other countries. This is no different for the providers of ‘other business’ services. Therefore in order to increase the competitiveness of South Africa’s ‘other business’ services sector internationally; the primary objective of this study was to identify the internal, as well as external barriers experienced by the exporters of ‘other business’ services. These internal and external barriers were identified by means of a questionnaire that the members of the BEPEC, who are exporters of ‘other business’ services, completed. Once these barriers were identified recommendations were made to the South African government. The most significant internal barriers were found to be: • lack of information about foreign markets; • lack of information on how to enter these foreign markets; • lack of personnel who are experienced in export activities; • scarcity of internal financial resources for export purposes and export promotion. • The most significant external barriers were found to be: • exchange rate risk and the risk of non-payment; • corruption and bribery; • risks involved with political instability in a country; • restrictions on immigration provisions such as delay in obtaining entry visas, residency or work permits; • poor infrastructure; • foreign government procurement policies; • distance to the target market. All of the identified barriers can mostly be addressed by the South African government by providing training, the provision of market related information, and trade negotiations. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

A service can be traded either directly between a consumer and provider of the service or a service can serve as an input into the manufacturing of various products and other services that are traded. Trade in services has therefore become an essential part of global trade and contributes significantly to global, as well as South African economic growth, development and productivity. Service trade has furthermore been growing at a greater rate than trade in manufactured goods. The growth of services trade can be attributed to growth in goods trade, technological advances, rising per capita incomes, micro-economic reforms, as well as increased consumer and business demand, and technological change. According to the GATS’ (General Agreement on Trade in Services) services sectorial classification list, the service sector can be classified into twelve major categories and these sectors can further be divided into 160 sub-sectors. One of the sub-sectors that have been identified that has significant growth potential globally and for South Africa is the sub-sector, ‘other business’ services. This sub-sector falls under the sector, business services. Trade data revealed that this sub-sector is one of the top three traded service categories internationally, as well as for South Africa. For the purpose of this study the focus was specifically on ‘other business’ services provided by members of the BEPEC (Built Environmental Professional Export Council). The services performed by the members of the BEPEC are: consulting engineering, architectural, quantity surveying, and construction project managing services. These services are inputs into the manufacturing or construction of human creations such as buildings, structures, dams, roads etc. Trade barriers, however, hinder the free flow of services from the service provider to customers in other countries. This is no different for the providers of ‘other business’ services. Therefore in order to increase the competitiveness of South Africa’s ‘other business’ services sector internationally; the primary objective of this study was to identify the internal, as well as external barriers experienced by the exporters of ‘other business’ services. These internal and external barriers were identified by means of a questionnaire that the members of the BEPEC, who are exporters of ‘other business’ services, completed. Once these barriers were identified recommendations were made to the South African government. The most significant internal barriers were found to be: • lack of information about foreign markets; • lack of information on how to enter these foreign markets; • lack of personnel who are experienced in export activities; • scarcity of internal financial resources for export purposes and export promotion. • The most significant external barriers were found to be: • exchange rate risk and the risk of non-payment; • corruption and bribery; • risks involved with political instability in a country; • restrictions on immigration provisions such as delay in obtaining entry visas, residency or work permits; • poor infrastructure; • foreign government procurement policies; • distance to the target market. All of the identified barriers can mostly be addressed by the South African government by providing training, the provision of market related information, and trade negotiations. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Graphic Design is one part of the producer services sector of the modern metropolitan region. It is a sector that has experienced considerable development in terms of number of firms through demand created by the expansion of advertising and multi media. To date research has established that producer services, particularly finance related ones, agglomerate in the central city to take advantage of the agglomeration economies available in large metropolitan areas. This thesis argues that one of the key factors for the agglomeration of graphic design is the need for face-to-face communication with clients and other firms. There has been some work undertaken looking at the location of non-finance producer services, such as design, although these have been presented as snapshots at a point in time.This thesis extends this understanding through an analysis of agglomerations of graphic design firms over a twenty year time horizon. Using details of firm location in Melbourne every five years from 1981 to 2001 the thesis uses a geospatial analytical technique to identify agglomerations and explores the change in the size, location and density of agglomerations of firms. This research shows that the initial agglomeration of 1981 was still present by 2001 and had been joined by a number of new agglomerations ringing the Melbourne CBD while at the same time there has also been a dispersal of firms to the middle suburbs. In order to provide some insight in to the agglomeration of graphic design firms this research also examines the geography of two industries allied to graphic design: advertising and printing. This research shows that graphic designers and advertising agencies tend to locate in similar parts of inner Melbourne which may be due to the need for face-to-face contact between fims in these two industries. (For complete abstract open document)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Geraldo de Araujo Guimaraes.pdf: 1895764 bytes, checksum: 70225a32f8624fa7404fac2bfb11e57e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-04 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This master s degree dissertation was aimed at the study of Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) in Brazil, in particular, Technology KIBS (T-KIBS) and the identification of the concentration of these activities and its factors. By means of identifying CNAE groups of activities categorized as T-KIBS according to the international literature and with the application of SGT software made available by the Department of Labor in its dissemination of labor statistics program based on the annual relations of social information of year 2006 it was identified the presence of each group of activity in each one of the 5653 Brazilian counties. In the process of identifying these concentration of activities the localization quotients (QL) where calculated for each county and by means of a geo-referencing software individual maps and a consolidated map of all concentration of activities associated with T-KIBS in Brazil was presented. As expected, it was observed a high degree of difference in the level of geographic concentration of activities associated with these services which confirmed the differences referenced in theory as it relates to the type of market and the nature of the production process of these activities. The spectrum of activities is wide, including a range from producers to proliferation of knowledge and this wide spectrum influences the dynamics of location and concentration of activities patterns. Regarding the variables used, the calculation of QL s with reference to number of locations did not explicitly reveal the existence of concentration of activities in comparison to the quantity of employees. In addition to the results originated from the secondary data analysis the intent of this dissertation was to identify the conditional factors for these T-KIBS concentration of activities according to the executives of these companies. Three interviews with executives from companies considered T-KIBS businesses were conducted in cities where the concentration of activities was high and considered in any way to have influenced the process of defining the location of these companies and included conditional factors of these locations. Several important points regarding the location of T-KIBS companies and the dynamics that lead to concentration of activities where identified in interviews. Some of these important points include differences between producers and developers of knowledge and implementation or dissemination of knowledge. While for the earlier the proximity of universities demonstrates to be one of the most relevant factors, for the later, this is not a significant factor due to the high degree of mobility of the work force. / Esta dissertação de mestrado buscou estudar a Localização dos Serviços Intensivos em Conhecimento (em inglês KIBS) no Brasil, em especial dos KIBS de natureza tecnológica (TKIBS), e identificar as aglomerações destas atividades e seus fatores condicionantes. Por meio da identificação dos grupos CNAEs das atividades classificadas como T-KIBS pela literatura internacional, e com o emprego do software SGT disponibilizado pelo Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego em seu Programa de Disseminação das Estatísticas do Trabalho (PDET) baseado nos dados da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS) do ano de 2006, foi identificada a presença de cada grupo de atividades em cada um dos 5653 municípios brasileiros. Na identificação das aglomerações foram calculados os Quocientes de Localização (QL) de cada município e, por meio de um software de geo-referenciamento, foram apresentados mapas individuais e um mapa consolidado com todas as aglomerações de todas as atividades T-KIBS no Brasil. Como esperado, observou-se uma alta heterogeneidade no nível de aglomeração geográfica destes serviços, confirmando as diferenças apontadas no referencial teórico pesquisado no que se refere ao tipo de mercado e à natureza do processo produtivo destas atividades. O espectro de atividades é variado, incluindo desde produtores de conhecimento até difusores e esta variação implica em dinâmicas diferenciadas de localização e padrões de aglomeração. Em relação às variáveis utilizadas, o cálculo dos QLs com base na dimensão de número de estabelecimentos não revelou tão explicitamente a existência de aglomerações em comparação com a dimensão quantidade de empregados. Além dos resultados provenientes da análise dos dados secundários, buscou-se nesta dissertação identificar os fatores condicionantes para as aglomerações dos T-KIBS segundo a percepção de executivos destas empresas. Para tanto, foram realizadas três entrevistas com executivos de empresas consideradas como empresas T-KIBS, que estivessem localizadas em cidades cujas aglomerações destas atividades fossem altas e que tivessem de alguma forma participado do processo de definição da localização das empresas e pudessem discorrer sobre os fatores condicionantes da localização. Uma série de pontos importantes sobre a localização de empresas T-KIBS e também sobre a dinâmica que conduz às aglomerações foram identificados nas entrevistas, como as diferenças entre produtores ou desenvolvedores de conhecimento e implementadores ou difusores do conhecimento. Enquanto para os primeiros a proximidade de universidades e instituições formadoras de mão-deobra qualificada se mostra ser um dos fatores mais relevantes, para os últimos este não é um fator tão relevante, uma vez que a mão-de-obra apresenta alto grau de mobilidade.