Producer Services and Flexible Production: An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

While the flexible production literature has become increasingly abundant in recent years, the vast majority of it is narrowly restricted to manufacturing activities, entirely ignoring the role that producer services play in modem systems of production. This paper attempts to explore the conceptual linkages between the growth and the location of producer services, on the one hand, and the rise of flexible forms of production, on the other. After a brief summary of the flexible production approach, the factors underlying the growth and the increasing externalization of producer services are examined. The appropriateness of employing a flexible production framework in the case of producer services, and the significance of flexible production for understanding the location of producer services are then explored. Finally, the labor force effect of flexibility in the production and use of producer services is considered.

Urban Hierarchy or Local Buzz? High-Order Producer Service and (or) Knowledge-Intensive Business Service Location in Canada, 1991-2001

“…It is the body of geographic literature closest to management and innovation studies (that dealing with innovative milieus; Malecki and Oinas 1999;Cooke, Heidenreich, and Braczyk 2004) that has explored in a more systematic way, and at a local and establishment level, the ways in which KIBS contribute to regional economic dynamism and to regional innovation systems. Although a few researchers, most notably Wood (1991Wood ( , 2002aWood ( , 2002bWood ( , 2006, Daniels and Bryson (2002), Coffey andBailly (1991), andCoffey (1996) have to some extent bridged the gap between the economic sector and the knowledge intensity approaches, for the time being they can still be said to inform different segments of the literature.…”

Spanish and European innovation diffusion: a structural hole approach in the input–output field

“…Likewise, this sector lumps together some services to firms whose development has been relevant as an answer to new ways of industrial organization (Antonelli 1999). At present, the strategic value of these activities is related with the increasing complexity of company organization and environment (Coffey and Bailly 1991). The search for flexibility in product production and distribution has influenced the process of externalization and expansion of these services.…”

Customer-induced uncertainty in predicting organizational design: Empirical evidence challenging the service versus manufacturing dichotomy

“…As manufacturing firms increase the level of service offered, they also increase the potential for uncertainty arising from interactions with customers. The shift to more flexible manufacturing systems and a focus on mass customization in the manufacturing of goods require higher levels of customer involvement than manufacturing firms may have faced in the past (Coffey and Bailly, 1991). At the same time, the idea of having a customer orientation is taking on a more comprehensive and complex meaning as customers and firms share interdependencies, values, and trust (Schneider and Bowen, 1995).…”

“…Moreover, it has been argued that the increasing variety of services may result in the variance of activities within the service sector being as large as that between service and manufacturing firms (van Dierdonck and Brandt, 1998). As such, it is becoming increasingly difficult to clearly distinguish organizations as agriculture, manufacturing, or service (Schmenner, 1995), and several authors have suggested the presence of a general continuum of organizations based on service intensity, with pure service and pure manufacturing at the two extremes (Armistead and Clark, 1991;Coffey and Bailly, 1991).…”