Proposição e teste de um modelo para coprodução na inovação em serviços intensivos em conhecimento

Abstract

The figures show that the service field has increased its participation in the world economy considerably, and information technology, a subsect or of intensive knowledge service businesses (KIBS), has contributed a lot for this evolution. These businesses, which hold the knowledge as raw material, promote innovations in services and increase the competitiveness of the client in the market. The client has been seen not only as a buyer of products and services, but also as a source of knowledge and expertise on its own business. Understanding and interacting with the customer has become fundamental for the companies in their search for competitive advantage. Co-production leads the companies to co-create value and narrow businesses relationships. Therefore, the relationship between the customer and the supplier is a major factor for the consolidation of a long-term relationship. Relationship marketing has become an alternative to combine value addition and business maintenance between organizations. In this context, this study aims to propose and to test a theoretical model that analyses the influences of previous co-production and its effect in service innovation, in the Business-to-business context (B2B), in information technology companies. This way, this study examines the building, the compromise, the confidence and the investment in the relationship, variables in the relationship marketing, and the clients’ expertise as priors to co-production. A survey research has been made with 250 information technology companies in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the answers were gotten according to the suppliers’ points of view. The statistic technique used was the Structural Equation Model (MEE) through which we have tested the theoretical model. The results have shown that co-production influences service innovation positively to a degree that depends on the client’s expertise, and relationship marketing variables. The explained variance has reached important indexes, confidence and commitment explained 50% of commitment, while compromise and knowledge of the customer explained 57% of co-production. Co-production explained 30% of service innovation. On the other hand, innovation orientation has not presented moderating effect in the relationship between co-production and service innovation. This research has contributed to the increase of the studies about relationship marketing and its effect on co-production for service innovation.