Productivity, Innovation and Knowledge in Services: New Economic and Socio-Economic Approaches

Services now account for almost three quarters of economic activity in advanced market economies and two of the principal topics that researchers on services have been concerned with are, on the one hand, productivity, and on the other, innovation in and through services. These two issues, and finding ways to measure and conceptualize them, lie at the heart of this book.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface William J. Baumol Introduction Jean Gadrey and Faïz Gallouj PART I PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCES IN SERVICES 1. How stagnant are services? Edward N. Wolff 2. The misuse of productivity concepts in services: lessons from a comparison between France and the United States Jean Gadrey 3. Informational activities as co-production of knowledge and values Jacques De Bandt and Ludovic Dibiaggio 4. Capital stock and productivity in French transport: an international comparison Bernard Chane Kune and Nanno Mulder 5. Growth and productivity in a knowledge-based service economy Pascal Petit 6. Networks, distributed knowledge and economic performance: evidence from quality control in corporate legal services Emmanuel Lazega PART II INNOVATION IN SERVICES AND THROUGH SERVICES 7. Services as leaders and the leader of the services William J. Baumol 8. Services innovation: towards a tertiarization of innovation studies Ian Miles 9. Demand, innovation and growth in services: evidence from the Italian case Maria Savona 10. Co-producers of innovation: on the role of knowledge-intensive business services in innovation Pim Den Hertog 11. Knowledge-intensive business services: processing knowledge and producing innovation Faïz Gallouj Epilogue: towards innovation and high performance in research on services Jean Gadrey and Faïz Gallouj Index

About the Author :
Edited by Jean Gadrey, Professor of Economics and Faïz Gallouj, Professor of Economics and member of CLERSE-CNRS, University of Lille, France

Review :
'. . . contains a number of useful papers on a highly topical issue, where high quality published work is lagging behind public interest.' 'This is an interesting and readable collection by a group of long-standing scholars.' 'While I have suggested that the literature on the services has not yet attained a volume commensurate with their importance, recent contributions by economists to analysis of this arena have hardly been negligible. Groups of highly qualified and productive researchers have contributed to a valuable and growing literature that begins to provide a deeper understanding of the issues raised by the role of the service sector. Jean Gadrey and his colleagues have been in the vanguard of this activity and their work has provided much needed additions to the analysis of the subject. This volume is a significant example of their work. And it is significant not only because of the quality of its contents but also because of the particular topic on which the compendium focuses.' 'This is an engaging volume that brings together some of the most important researchers working on the complex relationships between productivity, innovation and services. It is a major contribution to understanding the paradox in the relationship between services and economic growth. It challenges some of the widespread assumptions that are commonly held about services and is particularly strong in highlighting the relationship between these assumptions and the limitations imposed by existing forms of measurement and conceptual frameworks. The collection provides an important stepping-stone in the developing service research agenda in the discipline of economics. I enjoyed the book and found the content stimulating and thought-provoking, and the reference lists especially interesting. It is well worth a close read.'