Employment Creation in Small Technological and Design Innovators in the U.K. during the 1980s

This paper provides rare empirical evidence on employment creation by innovative small firms in the U.K. over the eleven years between 1980 and 1991. Drawing on a database of firms which were recognised as having introduced important innovations, the paper examines the extent of employment growth in these companies and compares their growth with that discovered by other studies of small firms in the U.K. This shows that the innovative firms have grown at a significantly faster average rate than small firms generally. Some of the factors associated with employment change in small firms are assessed. This shows that the initial size, age, sector of activity and type of innovation introduced by the firms were all associated with differences in their average rate of growth. The employment created was, however, highly concentrated in a few firms, but even the fastest growing of these companies (directly) created hundreds rather than thousands of new jobs over the period of analysis.     

Knowledge Intensive,Technical and Other Services: Patterns of Competitiveness and Innovation Compared

Drawing on empirical evidence from a wide-scale survey, this paper examines patterns of innovation and sources of competitiveness amongst German service firms. The purpose is to investigate how these patterns differ across services, and in particular how knowledge intensive and technical service firms differ from services more generally. The analysis finds a high degree of customization in the output of service firms, especially amongst the knowledge intensive and technical service firms, the innovation activities of which are also relatively more oriented to product innovation. Knowledge intensive and technical service firms also invest more heavily in information communication technologies, whilst other services invest heavily in non-ICTs. Thus significant diversity is found between the groups of firms examined, but much diversity also exists within the groups. A serious challenge for research on services is to improve our understanding of this diversity.     

The sources and aims of innovation in services: Variety between and within sectors

Services dominate economic activity, but remain under-researched by analysts of innovation and technological change. The early 'one size fits all' theories of innovation in services have in recent years given way to an appreciation that services are diverse, not least in their innovation activities. This paper draws on recent empirical evidence from large-scale surveys undertaken in 13 western European countries, to investigate the extent and the sources of innovation in five services sectors. The analysis includes the extent to which services innovate, and amongst innovators the extent to which they engage in R&D and collaborative arrangements for innovation. The analysis supports the recent literature which emphasises significant differences between sectors in their pattern of innovation behaviour, but also highlights significant intra-sectoral differences in innovation behaviour. This intra-sectoral variation deserves much fuller investigation in the future.     

Knowledge Intensive, Technical and Other Services: Patterns of Competitiveness and Innovation Compared

Drawing on empirical evidence from a wide-scale survey, this paper examines patterns of innovation and sources of competitiveness amongst German service firms. The purpose is to investigate how these patterns differ across services, and in particular how knowledge intensive and technical service firms differ from services more generally. The analysis finds a high degree of customization in the output of service firms, especially amongst the knowledge intensive and technical service firms, the innovation activities of which are also relatively more oriented to product innovation. Knowledge intensive and technical service firms also invest more heavily in information communication technologies, whilst other services invest heavily in non-ICTs. Thus significant diversity is found between the groups of firms examined, but much diversity also exists within the groups. A serious challenge for research on services is to improve our understanding of this diversity.     

Growth diversity amongst innovative and technology–based new and small firms: an interpretation

Innovative and technology-based new and small firms have been the focus of rapid growth expectations, but the empirical evidence shows modest growth is the norm amongst such firms. This article provides an interpretation of the development of these firms which is intended to highlight some of the diversity which exists within this population of firms.