The innovative future of service industries: (anti-)globalization and commensuration

Abstract

This paper is about the innovative future of service industries, with a focus on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The authors discuss the unique characteristics of service industries, the effects of internet technology and standardization in the realm of globalization and the future global knowledge based society. The paper analyses the link between the assessment of KIBS – by both stakeholders and clients – and commensuration, which is defined as comparing different entities to a common metric and measurement. This conceptual paper argues that the temptation to ‘quantify’ the value of KIBS as if they were commodities in global free markets is mistaken and especially problematic in a knowledge based society and that the necessary conceptual framework will include commensuration and possibly concepts from the sociological study of exchange and gift-giving.

Keywords:

• future
• service industries
• globalization
• commensuration
• exchange