Business Development Patterns of Small Knowledge Intensive Enterprises from Czech Republic

Generally, there is agreement about the economic benefits of knowledge-intensivebusiness services (KIBS) in the contemporary empirical literature. Therefore, drawing ona survey-based firm-level dataset, identify whether different service-market scenarios areassociated with different innovation and change activities, evaluating the explanatory power oftraditional classifications of the service sector, as well as the heterogeneity is driven by a firm. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical evidence is based on quantitative data throughan email questionnaire from July to September 2017. The basic population gathered fromuniversity database Amadeus after selected selection criteria included 1214 companies,operating in the knowledge-intensive business service sector. The total return rate from thesurvey was 128 valid answers in completely and correctly filled form (return 10.5%). Theanalysis is based on exploratory factor analyze, hierarchical cluster analysis and validationtechniques such as one-way ANOVA and Duncan multiple range test to the original variablesand testing for homogeneity within and differences between clusters. Findings: The analyses indicate four patterns of business development activities. Besidesa conservative category of KIBS in cluster 1, that do not carry out any relevant developmentactivity, we found cluster 2, characterized by market penetration through service modificationof existing services, cluster 3 is represented by new service development and finally, a cluster4 includes service repositioning strategy to the new markets. Research/practical implications: The research contributions of this study are twofold. First,the results have implications for owners and managers involved in business development in theservices industry and second, results could be useful for government efforts to support thedevelopment activities of KIBS as a heterogeneous category.