Sustainable marketing strategy under globalization: a comparison between p-KIBS and t-KIBS sectors

Abstract

The recognition of the relevance of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) is becoming especially acute in the European Union and even more important for many emerging economies. The objective of this paper is to explore what are the differences in marketing strategy to sustain the competitiveness of KIBS in the local and global markets in the last five years. In addition, this research compares what are the differences between the technology-based (t-KIBS) and professional-based (p-KIBS) business services. The empirical evidence is based on quantitative and firm-level data gathered through an email questionnaire which yielded 128 qualified responses from the small enterprises in Czech Republic. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests to compare the differences between the two groups of enterprises. The empirical evidence displays a diversity between t-KIBS and p-KIBS in usage of marketing policy such as pricing policy, brand or company presentation as well as the markets they operate on in the last five years. The research contributions of this study are twofold. First, the results have implications for managers involved in business development of service industry and second, results could be useful for government efforts to support the development (export) activities of KIBS as a heterogeneous category.