RESEARCH REPORT

MME101 Business Academic Skills Assignment 1 Research Report

MME101 Business Academic Skills Assignment 1 Research Report

Three reasons that organizations are building a services economy for their growth in current and future marketplaces

Environment

Interest in promoting sustainable, environmentally sound, development is a high priority for OECD countries. Services provide a number of key challenges and opportunities in this area. Within services, transportation is a sector which is both a major energy consumer and a source of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, most of the fast-growing knowledge-based services are (relatively) environmentally benign.

Innovation

Innovation, in its broadest sense, is widespread in many service sectors, but far less evident in others. Financial services, distribution and retail trade, communication services and software are among the most active innovators, as evidenced by their heavy investment in ICT and the vast array of new products that are being developed and adapted to meet changing consumer demands and/or enhance competitiveness.

Relationship to manufacturing

The relative importance of manufacturing and services to economies, and the inter-relationship between the two have been the subject of much discussion through the years. Some have argued that the decline in manufacturing and the corresponding shift to services is unsupportable in the long run, since services depend critically on manufacturing for their existence. In the absence of manufacturing, service sectors are seen as collapsing

Three sectors that are impacted by the forces of deregulation, regulatory reform and market liberalization

Mainly services industries are impacted by the forces of deregulation, regulatory reform and market liberalization. The sub-division of this sector includes:

Energy Sector

Telecommunication Sector

Health Sector

Three Future Challenges to Building a Services Economy

Service enterprises face many challenges when they expand into foreign markets. The evidence considered here demonstrates that these challenges vary from sector to sector. As the overview of KIBS reveals even within a service sub-sector there are considerable differences in the factors that influence the nature and extent of internationalization. It is then difficult to identify a common approach which service enterprises pursue. Furthermore, the rapidly changing technological environment is radically changing some service activities, creating new services and making others obsolete. Many services are knowledge-intensive, and their importance both within the domestic and international context is destined to increase as economies become knowledge-based. However, this aspect of services raises problems related to the market exchange and protection of knowledge and intangible assets.

The adoption of new technologies is essential if firms are to maintaining competitiveness. Service enterprises should be alert ...