Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of the role of knowledge intensive service activities (KISA) in supporting the innovation process of the software sector, and to explore the necessary conditions for their development. The chapter discusses the software industry in Australia and Ireland in relation to the following research questions: what are the main characteristics of the innovation processes of the national software sector? what is the role of KISA in the innovation process of software firms? and what are the major policy recommendations to improve the position of KISA in the innovation process of the national software sector? Commonalities are found between these analyses from two remarkably different economies, which allow us to generalise some features of KISA for other nations. Ireland is the world's major software exporter, whilst Australia has developed a very successful specialised software sector. The Irish study was mainly based on a postal survey among 808 software companies (with a 40.1 per cent response rate) and interviews with the senior managers of 16 of these firms. The Australian study was conducted through an online survey with follow-up interviews with 54 respondents to the survey and 4 I subsequent in-depth interviews. The key findings of both a technical and policy-analytical nature from each case study and inter-country comparisons should assist policy making and management of software firms.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Knowledge Economy at Work: Skills and Innovation in Knowledge Intensive Service Activities |
| Editors | Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Ian Miles, Tamara Weyman |
| Place of Publication | U.S. |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar |
| Pages | 131-158 |
| Number of pages | 28 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781847200495 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |