Variety in the innovation process of UK research and development service firms

Abstract

Research and development service firms (RDSFs) are a particular type of technology‐based knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS). RDSFs provide clients with R&D services on a contract basis, and operate as knowledge intermediaries linking research and market. They are innovative in their own right, as well as supporting innovation efforts by their clients; they rely on their own innovation efforts to be competitive and to develop new value propositions for their clients. The present paper explores the innovation process in RDSFs, drawing on semi‐structured interviews with founders and senior managers of 32 companies in the United Kingdom. Our findings suggest that RDSFs vary considerably in terms of their primary innovation drivers (i.e. whether they are mainly driven by market demands or by technological opportunities) and the outcomes they pursue (i.e. whether their outputs are mainly services to clients or a mixture of services and products and/or intellectual property). Four major orientations of RDSFs were identified: (i) technology‐based innovation exploiters; (ii) science‐focused innovation explorers; (iii) client‐driven innovation integrators; and (iv) open innovation translators. This variety among firms normally belonging to the same, small subsector of KIBS, suggests the need for caution in generalising about behaviour in terms of such statistical groupings.

The impact of service innovation on firm performance: a meta-analysis

“…In 2014, GE's service revenue accounted for 47.9%, and the service revenue margin was 33.6%, which was much higher than the product profit rate of 20% (Grawe et al, 2015). In addition, research and development service firms (RDSFs) such as Acorn Computers in the United Kingdom are providing clients with R&D services on a contractual basis, and are relying on service innovation to be competitive and develop new value propositions for themselves (Li et al, 2019). However, some companies have not achieved what they expected.…”

Relative Influence of Diversified Factors on the Living Standard of Farmers in Pakistan: A Multivariate Analysis

“…Material and methods are basically the progression of logical planning for conducting a particular research [25] [34]. Additionally, it elucidates in the scholar study by association among phenomena and level of understanding [35] [36] [37].…”

“…Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture acknowledged in the current era is e-agriculture [25]. In rural domain, it involves the conceptualization, development, design, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use ICTs with a prime focus on agriculture [26].…”

Transfer of Agricultural and Biological Sciences Research to Patents: The Case of EU-27

“…All these challenges are not possible without high-quality R&D that is broad and multidisciplinary, and above all geographically distributed [23]. It is well known that public research usually allocates its large resources to basic research, while companies focus on applied research, which they can market either directly or by selling the knowledge they have developed [24]. Regarding this last point, the key is the protection of these rights, generally via patents [25].…”