Factors affecting the performance of entrepreneurial service firms

In the current climate, the importance of the role played by entrepreneurship as a palpable reality that enables economic growth at a macroeconomic level, and as a factor that favours the progress of companies at a microeconomic level, has made it the subject of continual analyses from many different perspectives and in a variety of contexts by researchers from around the world. In this study, Spanish entrepreneurial firms in the service sector are analysed in order to determine the factors that influence their performance.     

Knowledge networking and growth in service firms

This paper empirically assesses whether knowledge networking affects the growth of small service firms. More specifically, using a large, unbalanced panel data set for the period 1992–2009, it investigates whether participation in a knowledge network called PLATO is positively related to service firm growth. The results show that knowledge networking has a highly significant positive effect on the net asset and added value growth of service firms. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the positive effect of knowledge networking on firm growth is significantly larger for service firms than for manufacturing firms, indicating that industry drives networking success.     

Profiling exporting and nonexporting service firms: Critical differences to decision-makers

The internationalization of services has become a critical element in the global marketplace. While the internationalization of services has increased in importance, the lack of empirically based research has been a shortcoming. This article empirically examines key characteristics (i.e., total sales, number of employees, age of firm, management's desire to export, perceived profit potential from internationalization, top management's foreign language skills, and international work experience) separating exporting from nonexporting domestic-based service firms. It provides a profile for the exporting service firm that is distinctly different than that of the nonexporting service provider. These differences suggest important policy considerations for federal and state export promotion agencies and strategy considerations for service firm owners and management. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Determinants of R&D collaboration of service firms

This article examines the determinants of R&D collaboration of service firms. Different from manufacturing firms, we expect that types of innovation, public financing, innovation protection, purchase of external R&D, firm’s absorptive capacity, spillovers, and certain innovation barriers determine the firm’s decision to collaborate in R&D. Results indicate that firms that undertake R&D collaboration tend to undertake process innovation, receive public funding, can protect their innovations, and typically subcontract the development of their technologies. The article provides implications for theory and practice.     

A comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation/growth relationship in service firms and manufacturing firms

This article builds on the recently increasingly mentioned notion that entrepreneurship in the service sector is a worthwhile, but clearly underresearched topic. Using a sample of 1,612 small- and medium-size enterprises from the four German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, and using structural equation modeling, this article finds that service firms have a significantly higher entrepreneurial orientation (EO) than manufacturing firms – both on the overall level as well as for each of the three sub-categories proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking. With regards to the positive relationship between a firm's EO and its growth aspirations, nevertheless, no significant differences could be identified. Accordingly, this study shows that EO is a strategic orientation of highest value for service firms as well, under the premise of growth-orientation.     

Evaluating service firms: Approaches with policy recommendations

Evaluation of service firms is a problem because the service sector of the world economy is growing so fast. Consumers often do not have reliable information about services prior to making a buying decision. This paper presents a model of service evaluation. Several applications, including Consumers' Checkbook, Which? and a test conducted in the U.S., of a mail survey methodology are examined as possible solutions to this problem. Lessons learned from these experiences are provided. Finally, implications are drawn regarding tactical, public policy, and academic research issues.     

Exploring the effects of international sourcing on manufacturing versus service firms

As the extent of international sourcing rises and the number of functional activities spreading across-national borders increases, there is a call for a better understanding of its impact on structural change. In this work, we explore the effects of international sourcing comparatively and look for differences between manufacturing and service firms. This study is based on a unique Slovenian data set that links the recently conducted Eurostats survey on international sourcing with a detailed financial firm-level data. The results from the matching methodology suggest that service firms involved in international sourcing gain an improvement in the quality and technological learning, resulting in the employment growth and development. This is not the case for manufacturing firms driven primarily by cost cutting. In our view, a better understanding of these effects is vital for both manufacturing as well as service firms that are influenced by this new trend.     

Innovation management in service firms: a research agenda

This article suggests an agenda for further research on innovation management in service firms. It investigates differences and similarities between issues identified by previous academic research and issues brought up by practitioners within the area of innovation management in service firms. The results show that there are some major differences; for instance, researchers stress a need for formalized processes for development work, while practitioners focus on facilitating innovation in everyday operations. The main conclusion is that in order to bridge the gap between research and practice we would encourage further research on innovation in service firms to (1) conduct micro studies of innovation work, (2) view innovation in the context of everyday operations and (3) focus on co-workers’ innovative potential.     

The determinants of export behaviour in UK service firms

This paper examines the determinants of export behaviour for a panel of UK service industry firms from 1988 to 2001. Export behaviour is modelled in a dual manner: as both the decision to export and the intensity of exporting. The results indicate that firm size, research intensity, average director's pay and the variance of the sterling–dollar exchange rate all increase the probability of becoming an exporter. In addition, the results indicate that the process underlying a firm's decision to export is a separate one from that determining export intensity, implying that the two decisions should be modelled separately.     

The role of service embeddedness in the internationalisation process of manufacturing firms

Over the last decade the growth of service firms, and their internationalisation, has attracted considerable attention from researchers, with a special focus on characteristics that distinguish services from goods. However, as the composition of a firm's product can contain both good and service elements, this paper argues that it is somewhat misleading to categorise a product simply as either a ‘good’ or a ‘service’. Manufactured goods often contain client-related services embedded in them. Further, the nature of these embedded services may vary with respect to their degree of separability of production and consumption. Based on several case studies of Australian manufacturing subsidiaries in the UK, this paper examines the impact of inseparable embedded services on a firm's entry-mode choice. It reveals that the extent and nature of embedded services have a considerable impact on a firm's choice of foreign entry mode. The research findings are likely to contribute to the existing marketing and internationalisation literature.     

Entrepreneurial failure and discrimination: lessons for small service firms

This paper draws lessons from a case decided by the USA Supreme Court, wherein the firm failure was perceived by the minority entrepreneur as an outcome of racial discrimination. Implications of this case are significant because the failure rate of minority-owned US businesses has been consistently higher than the average failure rate of US business. We argue that the impact of discrimination by a customer is greater for small service firms. Through the Domino's Pizza case, we assert that issues relating to equal employment, inter-company contracting and choice of business organisation must be managed by the owner of a service firm.     

The moderating effect of innovation protection mechanisms on the competitiveness of service firms

This empirical study examines the effectiveness of innovation protection mechanisms (IPMs) in capturing returns from innovation in service firms. To identify their effects, we set five types of IPMs (patents, other intellectual property rights, speed to market, secrecy, and complementary resources) as a moderator of the relationships between the innovation and firm competitiveness. Through a sample of service firms from the Korean Innovation Survey, the results of this study indicated that firm competitiveness cannot be influenced by service innovation alone but rather it is influenced by service innovation used in conjunction with IPMs other than patents. The results contribute to understanding innovation protection strategies for better competitiveness of service firms.     

Multi-item models for evaluating managerial and organizational resources in service firms

Services are the primary source of wealth in almost every nation around the world. Domestic competitiveness increasingly depends on the health of its service firms. Then understanding the source of competitive advantage for the case of service industry is a challenge that cannot be deferred. Resource-Based View literature gives sound evidences that intangible assets like managerial and organizational resources are the primary source of competitive advantage, especially in the service industry. However, the development of managerial tools for measuring and managing these resources remains as an open gap. In the last few years, some academic work has been devoted to develop intangible assets measurement devices. Nevertheless, these scales are either oriented towards manufacturing industry or do not take specifically into account the distinctive features of service delivery. This study replies the multi-item model proposed by Camisón (Manag Res 3(1):27–48, 2004) over a sample of 152 medium and large services companies. We have taken different tests to demonstrate validity and reliability of the scales. Results show that these scales may also be suitable for being used in all the types of service companies. However, some partial modifications should be done in order to give more relevance to soft managerial competences and to organizational human capital. This study was carried out as part of research project (reference GV2007-075) which has been subsidized by the “Valencian Government Programme Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects”.     

Workforce age and technology adoption in small and medium-sized service firms

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between the age structure of the workforce and the adoption of new or significantly improved technologies. Moreover, it attempts to identify the role of teamwork in this relationship. The econometric analysis is based on data of 356 small and medium-sized German firms from the knowledge-intensive services and ICT services sectors. The results show that, compared to employees younger than 30 years, an older workforce is negatively related to the probability of technology adoption. On the contrary, the dispersion of the employees’ age within the workforce seems not to be connected with the probability of technology adoption. However, in firms with intensive use of teamwork a homogenous workforce in terms of age is positively related to the probability of technology adoption.     

A service innovation framework for start-up firms by integrating service experience engineering approach and capability maturity model

The service sector contributes more than 70 % to the GDP of many countries in which their services should continually be innovated to improve customer satisfaction. This study reviews the literature from 1995 to 2014 in the field of service innovation, service experience and engineering, and maturity model. Results show that the existing service innovation frameworks lack a focus on business process improvement, particularly for start-up firms. It causes the startups not ready enough to deal with inevitable challenges that may be encountered in the future. Accordingly, this study proposes a novel framework that combines the service experience engineering method and capability maturity model of integration for service to develop a new innovative service and improve service quality process for start-up firms. A practical case is implemented by applying the proposed framework. A service innovation prototype system is developed on the basis of the case study to deliver a mobile campus merchandise purchasing service.     

Operations flexibility and outsourcing benefits: an empirical study in service firms

Outsourcing is a widely extended practice for many industries competing at the global level. Through outsourcing, firms are able to clearly define their core field of activities while transferring non-core activities to organizations enabled to perform them with higher degrees of efficiency. However, outsourcing is not exempted from some risks, especially those derived from process coordination, information sharing, or oportunistic behaviours. Operations flexibility can play a fundamental role in moderating these risks while increasing the benefits from outsourcing by decreasing the level of dependence on the outsourced activities. In this paper, a structural analysis is performed to analyse the relationship between operations flexibility and outsourcing benefits in service firms. Results show that higher levels of flexibility in the informations systems, markets, expansion, and personnel dimensions are directly related to higher outsourcing benefits.