Article analysis

1. ARTICLE ANALYSIS:
CREATIVITY VERSUS STANDARDIZATION
KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE BUSINESS
SERVICES: A REAL TRADE-OFF?
BETTIOL M., DI MARIA E. AND GRANDINETTI R.
Anna Perttu
Perttu Pohjola
24.11.2016

2. CONTENT
Introduction
Theoretical background
Data
Discussion
Conclusions

3. INTRODUCTION
 The role of standardization among knowledge-based business services (KIBS)
 Customization
 Standardization
 KIBS in design and communication  creativity
 Research question: “Can standardization and creativity go together?”
 The target of this study: to analyze relationships between creativity and standardization
in the KIBS processes.
 The scholars argue that trade-off between creativity and standardization can be solved.

4. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Standardization in KIBS
 Standardized service: the same every time. Customized service: varies depending on the
situation and the individual needs of the customer.
 Services are tailor-made and more customized than manufactured activities
 Relationships are important in services and quality plays big role
 Challenges in customization
 Efficiency
 Measuring productivity
 Modularization, when service is possible to divide into parts that are interchangeable and can
be replaced using standard interfaces.
 Authors here argue that in cases where the output of service is entirely customized, KIBS
specializing in creativity-based services concentrate more on standardization of the
process than standardization of the product.

5. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
 Design and communication: Creativity based services
 In creativity based industries the output is usually unique
 The process is normally informal  lack of productivity
 The solutions
 Codification of creative activities
 Organizational support for creativity

6. CASE STUDY (DATA)
 A qualitative research approach
 Target company Idiom
 Resarch to analyze the definition and use of methods by KIBS specializing in design and
communication services
 Data was colleced in different ways: interviews with founders, managers, designer, and also articles
related to the company
 The case study was designed to explore:
 The structure and organization of the innovation and management process
 The structure and forms of relationships with customers
 The forms and nature of cooperation with other players in value chain
 The use of information and communication technologies
 Intellectuel property strategy
 The approach of knowledge management (also suppliers and customers roles)
 Case study aimed to point out the features of the working method

7. CASE STUDY (DATA)
 Working method called business design
 The idea behind this was improving business design through design
 Designing business models, supply chains and sustainable revenues
 Business partner for clients and understanding the clients
 Three phases in the projects
 1. Insights: Needs of the customer are surveyed
 2. Ideas: The transformation of concept into operational inputs
 3. Implemantation
 Knowledge management strategy
 Design process based on information and communication technology, and knowledge management plays
an important role
 The bank of ideas
 Junction (customized project management software)

8. DISCUSSION
 The elements characterizing the company´s working method
 Values
 The firm´s operating principles
 How people do their work (practical)
 The division of labor
 Creative input management
 How to improve creativity
 The degree of process codification

9. CONCLUSIONS
 The working method is a crucial tool for supporting the creative production in KIBS
 Helps to maintain standardized quality
 The continuity of firm´s input
 Productivity
 According to the results of the study customization can be pursued effectively and
efficiently beyond modularization with the aid of working method
 Creativity based services can be industrialized trough a detailed codification of KIBS´s activities
 KIBS can adopt appropriate strategies for effectively coupling creativity with
standardization

10. CONCLUSIONS
 The biggest finding of this study and the most useful input to this discussion between
standardization and customization is that the actual working method of a certain company
can, and in to some extent should, be standardized. By doing this, economic of scale and
other advantages could be achieved.

11. CONCLUSIONS
 Creativity plays bigger role in KIBS in the future. Organizational and managerial support is
important.
 It is current topic to research creativity and productivity together
 This article provides extremely good and useful perspective to the debate between
standardization and customization of KIBS
 Communication and design services are so creative branches that it is very hard to define
whether the KIBS services should be customized or standardized.
more useful is to define certain parts of the actual working process, which can be
customized. This can be achieved by codifying the KIBS-activities.

12. THANK YOU 