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Innovation in services

Author
NESTA 

Published
May 2008

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Innovation in services policy briefing (PDF, 77Kb)
Taking services seriously report (PDF, 2 Mb)

 

Description

Services are increasingly important to the UK economy, generating over 75 per cent of value-added. But until recently, our understanding of how they innovate has been poor and policy has neglected innovation in services.

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NESTA’s new research sheds light on innovation in the services sectors. It shows how innovation happens in services businesses and how policy can help overcome the barriers they face. Traditional research and development spending is less important than having highly skilled workers, ICT and strong relationships with other businesses (particularly those within the supply chain).

If government is to take services seriously, it should invest in high-level skills and knowledge transfer beyond science and technology. It should also develop an Innovation Advisory Service comparable in scope and scale to the Manufacturing Advisory Service. Finally, behind all this, policy needs to be informed by indicators that capture the full extent of innovation in services.

 


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