This paper explores certain characteristics of Japanese professional business services (PBS). The aim is to develop an analytical typology consisting of the three dimensions -- organizational linkage, service market, and competitive situation -- for analysing the obtained empirical data. This...

This paper explores the internationalisation of Japanese professional business service (PBS) firms. The UK was chosen as the geographical area of study due to the large number of Japanese foreign direct investments over the last 20 years. A comparative study of Japanese and Western service...

The paper examines how the concept of care can be used to explain innovation in a public institution. First, three indicators of care that have been derived from care ethics are discussed: engrossment, motivational displacement and recognition of the carer [Noddings, N. (1984). <italic>Caring: A...</italic>

We demonstrate how one can measure overall quality in texts gathered from interviews by means of PERTEX text analytic method. We compare text analytic measures and content for locally active Scandinavian small business managers and globally operating Indian IT managers when recapitulating the...

We develop and test a model of innovation behavior in the hotel industry. The model relates four types of innovation--i.e., management, external communication, service scope and back-office--to the key determinants: service provider characteristics, customer competences and the market drivers....

This paper proposes a model of an attractor-based innovation system for understanding tourism. Key components of the model are the attractor (that which attracts visitors), scene-maker, scene, collaborative networks between tourism and other firms and, finally, the crucial function of the...

This paper discusses the possible applications of different types of experiment methods in innovation research. The paper argues that the experiment as a research method has been a largely missed opportunity in innovation research, in particular for creating applicable knowledge for businesses...

Banks are known to have stable and long lasting relations with their customers, which is why development of customer relations is a crucial strategic issue in banking. However, a basic problem in banking is that the customer base is heterogeneous, ranging from homogenous segments of customers...

Learning how to manage technology on foreign markets has become crucial for the competitive advantage of service firms. Not much has been written about how service firm learn to manage technology during internationalisation. This explorative study draws on verbatim accounts of critical incidents...