The nature of business services

This chapter reviews literature indicating that knowledge is the core of business services, thus determining the enormous role that these services play in national economies. By adopting knowledge as the main distinguishing feature of business services, the authors specified and characterised business services that demonstrate the highest levels of knowledge intensity. It was also noted that this knowledge, expressed in various forms, is also the basis for classifying business services. Various typologies of business services were presented, emphasising the importance of a division based on knowledge. Furthermore, assuming that innovation is understood as the commercial use of new knowledge, business service providers create, gather and diffuse knowledge, and therefore act as users, originators and transfer agents of innovations. However, these services, by contributing to the innovation of their contractors, should themselves be innovation-oriented. Thus, this chapter indicates the need for the innovative orientation of business services themselves and thus constituting the basis for further considerations in the book.