Business services within networks for innovation

Abstract

According to the systemic view, innovation at firm level is understood to be a cumulative learning process, whereby the firm complements its internal knowledge with knowledge and competencies available externally. We argue in favour of the development of complex divisions of labour and of intense interactions between the innovative efforts of the firm and external agents to building up dynamic innovation systems. This view calls for a deeper understanding of the interactions within the innovation system, namely between firms and consulting services, of the role and growth of consultancy. This avenue opens also up for a richer discription of various types of service providers and their interaction with firms, as well as for an evaluation of the services provided. This paper addresses these issues using data from a 1999 survey on the use of consultancy by corporations located Portugal and Spain. The empirical study focuses on the range of suppliers used and on the success of the consulting assignment in terms of client judgement of the results compared to the expected. A final issue concerns the evaluation of consultants’ job. Implications for policy are derived.