Managing value creation in Knowledge Intensive Business Services organisations

Abstract

Value creation is essential in the Knowledge Intensive Business Service (KIBS) industry, due to its problemsolving nature. KIBS organisations need to understand their internal value creation processes as well as the complexity in the environment in order to survive and thrive. This paper investigates how value creation is managed in KIBS organisation through a case study. It then goes on to adopt Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) to propose an organisational design, namely the Value Integration Office (VIO). The VIO focuses on the 5 functions/systems defined by VSM in the meta-system and operation of an organisation in order to manage value creation. This design is implemented in a case study organisation with the aim to adopt a holistic view on value creation within the organisation as well as facilitate future planning function. The implementation and impact of the proposed organisational design are reported in this paper.

Value Creation in Business Services through the Prism of Experience Economy: Conceptualizing Value-in-experience

“…Despite the complexity of KIBS content, there is plenty of evidence in the existing literature, which proves that there are other dimensions in value creation process in the services of such type that are not purely rational. By definition, KIBS providers are organizations that use and build knowledge as primary component of value creation process (European Commission, 2012; Hervas-Oliver, Albors-Garrigos, & Hidalgo, 2011; Hidalgo & Lemus-Aguilar, 2014; Pan, Jackson, & Limburg, 2015). Knowledge building in KIBS is performed via co-creation process, where service provider closely cooperates with the customer (Kukk et al, 2014; Stenroos & Jaakkola, 2010, 2012).…”

Opening the black box of knowledge management mechanisms: exploring knowledge flows at a consultancy

“…Achterbergh and Vriens (2002) applied the VSM to KM by identifying the domains of knowledge an organization should possess to be steered and maintain its viability (recently advanced by Preece and Shaw (2019) in a case study of a design and printing company). However, in the absence of physical goods, knowledge-intensive organizations create value primarily through employing their expertise in solving customers' problems, making knowledge exchange even more crucial (Pan et al ., 2015). Consequently, in these types of organizations, knowledge that creates value becomes an essential part of resources required for organizational viability.…”