Managing and organising technical and scientific service firms: a taxonomy and an empirical study

Abstract

In the last decade, firms have increasingly relied on external sources of technology to support their innovation process. A number of scholars have investigated several aspects of this phenomenon. Little attention has been paid to those companies that offer Technical and Scientific Services (TSS), although their number is increasing and it seems they have a positive impact on client firms' innovative performance.The purpose of this paper is to adopt a firm-level perspective and analyse the key organisational and managerial challenges TSS companies are confronted with. For this purpose, we first conducted a literature analysis in order to build a research framework that comprises: (1) a map of the organisational and managerial decisions that are critical to the TSS firm's competitiveness; and (2) a set of contextual variables that are likely to discriminate between alternative organisational and managerial choices. This research framework is applied in the second part of the paper to support a multiple case study analysis involving 12 TSS firms. A number of exploratory insights into the management and organisation of the analysed companies are presented and discussed.

The Market for Nanotechnology Applications and its Managerial Implications: an Empirical Investigation in the Italian Landscape

“…nanopowders) to be sold, licensed out or partnered with the client company, that carries out the remaining tasks of the development process and includes them into its innovative products. These companies provide a service of "Work In Progress (WIP) Innovation" (Chiesa et al, 2005b) and typically operate in the category of nanomaterials; M2. the method adopted by nanotech companies carrying out, for the client firm, a particular process (e.g.…”

“…thin film deposition) that requires excellent competencies in a specific scientific domain. These companies provide a service of "Process Activity" (Chiesa et al, 2005b), and usually operate in the nanoprocesses category. M3.…”

What is the place of technical and scientific service companies (TSS) in the process of developing new products? Insights on their managerial and organizational features

“…This kind of service can be applied to several sectors: from banking to real estate, from market research to insurance services. Among KIBS, a more specific subset can be identified, called TSS -Technical and Scientific Services (Abetti, 1989;Howells, 1999;Larsen, 2000;den Hertog and Bilderbeek, 2000;Chiesa and Manzini, 2001;Arora et al, 2001;Chiesa et al, 2008;Chiaroni et al, 2008). According to these authors, TSS are "services which rely upon technical and scientific knowledge and give an output that is, again, technical and scientific knowledge."…”

“…Literature (Windrum and Tomlinson, 1999;Debackere 1999;Chiesa andManzini, 2001, Chiesa et al, 2008) has also suggested several taxonomies in order to identify existing service firms. Moreover, there have been some explorative attempts to study more in depth how these service companies are organized and managed by assuming a sort of internal perspective and analyzing the main companies' choices in terms of business model elements (Hargadon and Sutton, 1997;Kelly, 2001;Chiesa et al, 2004;Chiesa et al, 2008), for example in terms of organizational structure (i.e. firm organization, human resources management, level of internal competencies, services offered); commercialisation strategy and marketing approach (i.e.…”

The Market for NPD Services: the Emerging Business Models in Italy

“…This kind of service can be applied to several sectors: from banking to real estate, from market research to insurance services. Among KIBS, a more specific subset can be identified, called TSSTechnical and Scientific Services (Abetti, 1989;MacPherson, 1997a;MacPherson, 1997b;Howells, 1999;Larsen, 2000;Chiesa & Manzini, 2001;Arora et al, 2001;Chiesa et al, 2008;Chiaroni et al, 2008). According to these authors, TSS are "services which rely upon technical and scientific knowledge and give an output that is, again, technical and scientific knowledge."…”