Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a survey of business and professional service firms. The aim was to understand variety amongst professional and business service firms, in terms of how they compete, how they innovate, how they manage knowledge, etc. Firms active in the following sectors were surveyed: advertising agencies; architecture practices; design and creative agencies; engineering and building consultancy; IT services and software consultancy; market research. A total of 4500 firms were sent the survey by post; 576 completed surveys were received. The survey examined issues including: service offerings clients and competitors; employees, human resources and knowledge management; collaboration and partnerships; innovation; and general information.

Main Topics:

Competition, innovation, knowledge management and collaboration in professional and business service firms.

For the market research, advertising and IT firms, a sample stratified by size was drawn from company databases. For the architecture, engineering and design firms, contact details were collected from organisational listings.

Postal survey

Web-based survey