Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) significantly contribute to the economic growth and competitive advantage of emerging markets, including Silk Road countries. KIBS are not only intermediaries that transfer knowledge through the economy but are also innovators themselves. This paper aims to explore how major innovation drivers influence the implementation of innovation in KIBS. Using a sample of 519 KIBS enterprises from Russia, the results show that human capital increases the implementation of technological innovation, while the link between standardisation and technological innovations is non-linear (an inverted U-shaped). In addition, the multiregional branch network promotes the implementation of all types of innovation, while advertising investments enhance the implementation of technological and marketing ones. These results help to provide some practical suggestions for both innovation managers and policy-makers.

This paper introduces a framework for AI-driven competency transfer hubs, designed to facilitate effective knowledge exchange and collaboration between universities and industries. These hubs leverage artificial intelligence technologies like machine learning and natural language processing to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of information flows between academic institutions and industry partners, optimizing the whole knowledge-sharing process. Using the TCM-ADO framework the paper consolidates existing perspectives and offers practical suggestions on how to incorporate AI technologies into competency hubs. The discussion further delves into outlining key layers of such hubs including AI-powered knowledge extraction and enrichment, knowledge customization, adaptive project management as well as collaboration outcome enhancement and feedback optimization. A set of key elements for AI-enhanced competency transfer hubs was also developed and presented including the issues of technical alignment, advanced AI integration as well as value aspects. The study wraps up by exploring key areas of application in the establishment of AI-enhanced competency transfer hubs and their wider societal significance.

Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) industries demonstrate some of the highest levels of innovation in most developed economies. However, these industries are very heterogeneous. Research on their innovative activities is needed in order to provide evidence to inform policy instruments to support such companies.In this paper, we analyze the innovation configurations of 477 Russian KIBS companies. First, we use factor analysis to study the key features of their innovative behavior: different innovation types and different features of demand for KIBS from innovative clients (volume, range and level of customization of services). Three factors emerge, and the KIBS companies are divided into six clusters through the prism of these factors. The clusters are: non-innovators; organizational change innovators; marketing innovators; technology-oriented innovators; non-technological innovators and diversified innovators. Finally, we examine the distribution of companies across the clusters in terms of their size and the type of services

Purpose: The literature on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) shows them to be major innovators; this is confirmed with recent data, which the authors use to examine the various types of innovation that KIBS undertake. The implications for employment and work in highly innovative industries are important topics for analysis, not least because we are in a period where dramatic claims are being made as to the implications of new technologies for professional occupations. Thus, this paper aims to address major debates and conclusions concerning innovation patterns in KIBS and the evolving structures of professional and other work in these industries. Design/methodology/approach: This essay combines literature review with presentation and discussion of statistics that throw light on the patterns of innovation that characterise KIBS. The authors also consider data that concern trends in the organisation of work in these industries; while the focus is mainly on KIBS firms, they also pay some attention to KIBS-like work in other sectors. Even though KIBS are distinctive industries in modern economies, these analyses can be related to more general studies of, and forecasts about, changes in work organisation. Findings: The authors show that innovation patterns and employment structures vary substantially across different types of KIBS, with the distinction between technological, professional and creative KIBS proving to be useful for capturing these differences. The authors are also able to demonstrate important long- and medium-term trends in the structure and activities of the KIBS industries. In particular, data clearly demonstrate the increasing share of professional as against associate and clerical workers in most KIBS. Evidence also suggests that polarisation trends across the economy are mirrored, and in some cases amplified, in KIBS. The future prospects for employment in KIBS, and for professional work in particular, are seen to involve multiple factors, which together may bring about substantial change. Research limitations/implications: The study involves literature review and industry-level statistical analysis. Future work would benefit from firm-level analysis and validation and explication of results via consultation with practitioners and users of KIBS. Some puzzling variations across countries and sectors will need to be explored with national and sectoral experts. Practical implications: Research into KIBS activities, and their future, should make more use of the extensive statistics on employment and other structural features of the industries that have become available in recent years. KIBS firms and practitioners will need to take account of the forces for change that are liable to restructure their activities. Originality/value: The literature on KIBS has been concentrated on a rather narrow range of issues, while analysis of the current contributions and future development of the industries requires attention to a wider range of topics. This paper suggests how these topics may be investigated and their implications explored and presents results of enquiries along these lines.

Digital Business Services (DBS), industries that have grown rapidly in recent years, played important roles in facilitating the adoption of digital technologies, as well as having applications in innovative products, transforming business processes across the economy. If DBS firms are committed to reducing negative environmental impacts, they should be able to make more positive contributions to their clients’ performance; for instance, promoting the digitalization of businesses process in ways that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient energy usage. But what are DBS business practices, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and related topics? This study examines the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures of leading companies providing consultancy, advertising/marketing, and information technology services. The plans, targets, and actions of DBS companies with above-average ESG scores, as indexed by the Refinitiv dataset, are examined. The results indicate that all of these firms express goals, and almost all of them have set clear targets, in terms of moving to net zero. A wide range of relevant activities is being implemented, including services that promote energy efficiency. The diversity of these actions suggests that these firms can learn from each other, and that companies with lower ESG ratings have models to emulate.

Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are problem-solvers for other organizations. The coronacrisis affects KIBS directly, but also means that their clients are confronting new problems. How are KIBS addressing these two sets of challenges? This paper draws on material available in the trade and industry press, on official reports and statistics, and the early academic studies addressing these themes. We find that KIBS have been active (alongside other organizations) in providing a substantial range of services aimed at helping their clients (and others) deal with various contingencies thrown up by the crisis. Not least among these is the need to conform to shifting regulatory frameworks, and requirements for longer-term resilience. KIBS themselves have had to adapt their working practices considerably, to reduce face-to-face interaction with clients and within teams collaborating on projects. Adaptation is easier for those whose tasks that are relatively standardized and codified, and it remains to be seen how far a shift to such activities - and away from the traditional office-based venues of activity - is retained as firms recover from the crisis. KIBS are liable to play an important role in this recovery from the crisis, and policymakers can mobilize their services. Some KIBS are liable to be critical for rendering economies more resilient in the face of future pandemics and we argue that these firms are also important for confronting the mounting climate crisis.