• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.631-640
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• 2012

Purpose: This empirical study is focused on the relationship between innovation capability (R&D and Human Resource innovation) and performance in knowledge-based service firms. Methods: We build research model to test how each of innovation capability on technology and human resource is influenced on their financial and non-financial performance in the knowledge-based service industries. Based on the previous research, we hypothesized the factors are regarded innovation capabilities of the firms as the scale of R&D and human resources. Because this study is especially targeted to the performance of knowledge-based service firms. With the survey on 424 main knowledge-based service firms, the multi-regression analysis was performed. Results: The result showed that the scale of R&D and human resources capabilities are main factors for knowledge-based service firms' performance, which reflects the current industrial structure. Conclusion: This study empirically demonstrated that human resources are most important to the growth of knowledge-based service firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.967-976
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• 2021

This study aimed to investigate the mechanism by which service companies transfer their services overseas and create new value while interacting with local characteristics. A narrative analysis method was used in a case study of Ajisen Ramen, a Japanese service company that created a Japanese-style ramen restaurant, which experienced rapid growth in China. This study analyzed the restaurant as global service innovation and constructed a causal mechanism to explain the resulting rapid growth. In the pre-entry stage, the tangible value source core service facilitated its successful overseas transfer. In the post-entry stage, value source core service standardization and value sharing were interrelated and locally accepted factors. Knowledge of the local characteristics influenced the local storefront format that allowed contact with local customers. This local front format made it possible to offer local customers new value. The global service innovation mechanism developed through this study reflects a causal diagram that correlated the theoretical concepts of these events.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.45-70
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• 2005

Much work on innovation has focused on the manufacturing sector. In this paper, we propose a framework for analyzing innovation in services centred on capability and technology integration. We illustrate the theoretical points made by conducting a case study on an international telephone communications provider Brastel, which introduced significant innovations in international calling services, in the form of rechargeable pre-paid calling card, through effective application of standard IT. Brastel is situated against its main competitors, considering two dimensions of price and service breadth and convenience. A novel technique for measuring competitiveness based on price and service index is introduced. The following competitors were selected: NTT, KDDI, Japan Telecom, Fusion Communications, J-Call / World Link, G-Call, ASP Check, Primus, QuickPhone, and MCI. To create the service index, factors such as ease of use, convenience, number of languages in which the services are available, and additional features were taken into account. The company itself and the rechargeable card innovation were analyzed through in-depth interviews and data collection. It was shown that a competitive advantage was maintained through internal and external capabilities.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.68-76
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• 2006

It is generally thought that the quality management and the six-sigma management innovation are not applicable to service industry, which might be derived from some differences between service and manufacturing industries. However, both are substantially alike in some intrinsic attributes. KT is leading the quality management and the six-sigma innovation activities in service industry, especially among telecommunication companies in Korea. Six sigma management innovation has been fostered in KT within short period of time and played an important role in helping KT privatized successfully. The successful cases of six sigma innovation activities in KT could be introduced to other Korean companies in service industry. Five key factors for the success of six-sigma innovation activities are suggested, The hidden factory in all the fields of company should be eliminated. Six-sigma projects need to be connected with the company strategy. The project should be carried out intensively in a short time. The innovation activities in the field need to be integrated. The best practice of six-sigma should be disseminated in the field.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.21-55
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• 2014

The rates of technological innovation and environmental change as well as market competition have recently accelerated, which makes it difficult for firms to satisfy the needs of their customers through existing product innovation or limited services. Some firms have attempted to find the solutions to this problem by conducting business model (BM) innovation. This study reviews the theoretical discussion to BM innovation and suggests propositions concerning the necessity of BM innovation and conditions of successful BM innovation. Furthermore, the study examines the applicability of the propositions and draws strategic implications by analysing the cases of two world-wide leading firms, AVL and ETAS, in the automobile R&D service sector. In particular, the study investigates how the firms with technological competence in the R&D service sector obtain market performance through BM innovation. Results of this study show that the case firms recognize the necessity of BM innovation based on product (or technology)-service fusion to effectively propose customer value and create corporate profit. Also, the firms exploit firm-specific complementary assets for successful BM innovation. This paper contributes to the literature of innovation management by promoting academic discussion concerning BM innovation in Korea and suggesting strategic implications for further development of R&D service sector and related firms in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.699-708
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• 2017

The service industry, as a new growth engine, has become more important in response to changes in the global economy and the industrial environment. Developed countries have promoted the competitiveness of the service industry and have enhanced economic added value. Developing new services requires extensive resources. Therefore, cooperation and network building capabilities with customers, suppliers, and various knowledge creation agencies are critical sources of competitiveness. This study classified the Korean service industry by industrial type in order to enhance innovation competence.The Korean service industry lags behind that of developed countries, and this study analyzed the differences of innovation results according to collaboration partners by the classified industry. By adopting a method that applies industrial classification by Dialogic's innovation pattern, this study showed external cooperation results were different by industrial type. Analysis results revealed that companies cooperate with customers and competitors in many cases; however, product innovation was higher for companies that collaborated with private service companies. In the 'Innovation in services' industry, industry cooperation with universities showed organizational innovation achievements. In the 'Innovation through services' industry, cooperation with customers positively affected marketing innovation achievements. Consequently, the need to foster consulting firms and universities that can professionally collaborate with companies is implied in order to enhance the Korean service industry.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-106
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• 2013

In the service-oriented economy, knowledge and skills are considered core resources to secure competitive advantages and service innovation. Knowledge management capability, which facilitates to produce, share, accumulate and reuse knowledge, becomes as important as knowledge itself to create service value. Along with knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability are the key capabilities related to managing service delivery processes. Previous studies indicated that these three capabilities are related to service innovation. Although separately investigate the relationship between the three capabilities. The purpose of this study is 1) to define variables that have effects on service innovation including knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability, and 2) to empirically test to identify relationship among variables. In this study, knowledge management capability is defined as the capability to manage knowledge process. Dynamic capability is regarded as the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments. Operational capability refers to a high-level routine that, together with its implementing input flows, confers upon an organization's management a set of decision options for producing significant outputs of a particular type. The proposed research model was tested against the data collected through the survey method. The survey questionnaire was distributed to the managers who participated in an educational program for management consulting. Each individual who answered the questionnaire represented a knowledge based service firm. About 212 surveys questionnaires were sent via e-mail or directly delivered to respondents. The number of useable responses was 93. Measurement items were adapted from previous studies to reflect the characteristics of the industry each informant worked in. All measurement items were in, 5 point Likert scale with anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Out of 93 respondents, about 81% were male, 82% of respondents were in their 30s. In terms of jobs, managers were 39.78%, professions/technicians were 24.73%, researchers were 12.90%, and sales people were 10.75%. Most of respondents worked for medium size enterprises (47,31%) in their, less than 30 employees (46.24%) in their number of employees, and less than 10 million USD (65.59%) in terms of sales volume. To test the proposed research model, structural equation modeling (SEM) technique (SPSS 16.0 and AMOS version 5) was used. We found that the three organizational capabilities have influence on service innovation directly or indirectly. Knowledge management capability directly affects dynamic capability and service innovation but indirectly affect operational capability through dynamic capability. Dynamic capability has no direct impact on service innovation, but influence service innovation indirectly through operational capability. Operational capability was found to positively affect service innovation. In sum, three organizational capabilities (knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability) need to be strategically managed at firm level, because organizational capabilities are significantly related to service innovation. An interesting result is that dynamic capability has a positive effect on service innovation only indirectly through operational capability. This result indicates that service innovation might have a characteristics similar to process innovation rather than product orientation. The results also show that organizational capabilities are inter-correlated to influence each other. Dynamic capability enables effective resource management, arrangement, and integration. Through these dynamic capability affected activities, strategic agility and responsibility get strength. Knowledge management capability intensify dynamic capability and service innovation. Knowledge management capability is the basis of dynamic capability as well. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed further in the conclusion section.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.324-357
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• 2016

As the transition to the knowledge-based economy has been accelerated in the 21st century, the importance of the service industry has been highlighted. As the proportion of knowledge service industry in the economy and the related employment rate are continuously growing, it is necessary to bring innovation to the industry in order to increase competitiveness. In this study, the innovation types are diversified into product, process, organization, and marketing and the influencing factors have been analyzed with knowledge service firms. The complex causal relationship that is linked to the innovation performance has been analyzed by the structural equation with each innovation types as the intervening variables. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. The innovation capacity of firms in knowledge service industry has very strong positive effects either directly or indirectly on product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, marketing innovation, and the revenue and employment of the firm. On the other hand, innovation support policy through government intervention produce negative impact on product innovation and they do not create meaningful impact on the total effect on the revenue nor the employment growth. The innovation should ultimately create effects on the revenue and the employment of the firm. And the government support policies should be carefully designed in consideration of the final destination point of this complex causal structure.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.358-368
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• 2006

The significance of intellectual property in the knowledge-based society has been increasing and as a result, the patent customer's demand for a top quality patent administration service has increased as well. Therefore, Korean Intellectual Property Office(KIPO) adopted 6 sigma as a tool for KIPO's innovation to improve the quality of patent administration and enhance customer satisfaction. KIPO's steadfast promotion of 6 sigma resulted in many successful outcomes such as improvement of policy and service process from customer's point view, streamlining the administrative procedures, increased work efficiency, capability enhancement of core personnel, and so on. Since 6 sigma has proved itself to be equipped with features suitable for innovation in public sector, it can be used as an extensible innovation tool to meet the challenges in rapidly changing administration environment and to achieve a competitive edge.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.628-633
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• 2013

Knowledge-based Service Industry is an industry that creates added value through the production, processing, and use of knowledge. Comparing to other service industries, it is innovation-oriented business endeavors having the characteristics that exert the great influences on other fields. Meanwhile, however, research efforts thereof are yet insignificant. In this study, we analyzed the innovation performance of architectural design office which creates knowledge services, having raised the necessity of innovation of the design office. The innovation performance were classified according to the extent of efficiency of the architectural design office making use of DEA-Tier analysis, and, for those architectural design offices that showed significant differences in efficiency, we presented the case studies of the firms that were substantial benchmarking targets from short, medium, and long-term perspectives.