Experts and innovation : an economic analysis on knowledge-intensive business services and energy efficiency consultants

Experts have been discussed in the literature concerning the role of transferring knowledge to client firms and private customers. Nevertheless, only limited evidence has been presented concerning the clients’ internal perspective in particular on the degree of information. Seven papers are presented in the thesis using explorative qualitative and mixed methodological approaches. The first two chapters deal with the impact of knowledge-intensive business services on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The first paper characterizes information asymmetries as driver of demand by SMEs. ...