Business Services (business + services)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The ,New Minimalist Approach' to Private-Sector Development: A Critical Assessment

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2006
Tilman Altenburg
Recent literature on private-sector development emphasises the need to establish a ,level playing field' and tends to disregard selective supportive interventions. The most commonly highlighted elements are administrative simplification and effective property rights policies, with business services largely left to private providers - what we call the ,new minimalist approach' (NMA). However, the NMA is based on certain unrealistic assumptions and is barely backed by empirical evidence. A range of complementary public policies is needed to create competitive sectors and overcome internal constraints, especially in small-scale economies. [source]


Financial and business services , the driving force behind the UK's economic success

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 3 2007
Article first published online: 6 AUG 200
First page of article [source]


CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE NETHERLANDS: STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, INNOVATIVENESS AND EFFECTS ON URBAN GROWTH

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2008
Erik Stam
ABSTRACT. Creativity is central in stimulating economic growth in cities, regions and advanced capitalist economies in general. There is, of course, no one-to-one relation of the number of firms in creative industries to economic growth. Innovation is a key mechanism explaining the relationship of creative industries with economic performance. Based on an empirical study in the Netherlands we explore the effect of creative industries on innovation, and ultimately on employment growth in cities. In the Netherlands the three specific domains of creative industries - arts, media and publishing, and creative business services - make up 9 per cent of the business population. Drawing on survey data we find that firms in creative industries are indeed relatively innovative. Yet substantial differences are found across the three domains: firms in the arts domain are clearly less innovative, most likely due to a different (less market-oriented) dominant ideology. In addition, firms in creative industries located in urban areas are more innovative than their rural counterparts. We go on to analyse how the concentration of creative industries across cities is connected with employment growth. With the exception of the metropolitan city of Amsterdam, we find no measurable spill-over effect from creative industries. The presence of the creative class (in all kinds of industries other than creative ones) appears to be a much stronger driver of employment growth than creative industries. [source]


Toward a Geography of the Globalization of Architecture Office Networks

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2005
PAUL L. KNOX
This paper examines the globalization of architectural practice, focusing on the global strategies of architectural firms in relation to those of advanced business services and to the evolving network of world cities that provides the spatial framework for economic globalization. A basic geography of global architecture office networks is identified, and multivariate statistical analysis is used to identify four distinctive global arenas in which architectural firms are involved. In a final section, the implications of these findings for architectural education are discussed. [source]


Innovative versus incremental new business services: Different keys for achieving success

THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2001
Ulrike de Brentani
In companies where new product development plays an important strategic role, managers necessarily contend with a portfolio of projects that range from high technology, new-to-the-world, innovations to relatively simple improvements, adaptations, line extensions, or imitations of competitive offerings. Recent studies indicate that achieving successful outcomes for projects that differ radically in terms of innovativeness requires that firms adjust their NPD practices in line with the type of new product project they are developing. Based on a large-scale survey of managers knowledgeable about new product development in their firm, this study focuses on new business-to-business service projects in an attempt to gain insights about the influence of product innovativeness on the factors that are linked to new service success and failure. The research results indicate that there are a small number of "global" success factors which appear to govern the outcome of new service ventures, regardless of their degree of newness. These include: ensuring an excellent customer/need fit, involving expert front line personnel in creating the new service and in helping customers appreciate its distinctiveness and benefits, and implementing a formal and planned launch program for the new service offering. Several other factors, however, were found to play a more distinctive role in the outcome of new service ventures, depending on how really new or innovative the new service was. For low innovativeness new business services, the results suggest that managers can enhance performance by: leveraging the firm's unique competencies, experiences and reputation through the introduction of new services that have a strong corporate fit; installing a formal "stage-gate" new service development system, particularly at the front-end and during the design stage of the development process; and ensuring that efforts to differentiate services from competitive or past offerings do not lead to high cost or unnecessarily complex service offerings. For new-to-the-world business services, the primary distinguishing feature impacting performance is the corporate culture of the firm: one that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity, and that actively involves senior managers in the role of visionary and mentor for new service development. In addition, good market potential and marketing tactics that offset the intangibility of "really new" service concepts appear to have a positive performance effect. [source]


The application of neural networks to predict abnormal stock returns using insider trading data

APPLIED STOCHASTIC MODELS IN BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY, Issue 4 2002
Alan M. Safer
Abstract Until now, data mining statistical techniques have not been used to improve the prediction of abnormal stock returns using insider trading data. Consequently, an investigation using neural network analysis was initiated. The research covered 343 companies for a period of 4½ years. Study findings revealed that the prediction of abnormal returns could be enhanced in the following ways: (1) extending the time of the future forecast up to 1 year; (2) increasing the period of back aggregated data; (3) narrowing the assessment to certain industries such as electronic equipment and business services and (4) focusing on small and midsize rather than large companies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]