FG ABWL, insbesondere Organisation und Unternehmensführung
We present an empirical approach to measuring service innovation on the company level
through the analysis of trademarks. Prior empirical investigations in several industries have
shown that a trademark may be used as an innovation indicator. This article explores the
use and relevance of trademarks by conducting a survey in the knowledge-intensive business
services (KIBS) industries with 278 participating companies. Our survey results explain
the use of trademarks as a way to protect innovation and intellectual property for KIBS. In
sum, we show that trademarks can be described as adequate and useful indicators to measure
new service innovations in the KIBS industries. Additionally, we show that trademarks
have the potential to overcome weaknesses of traditional measurement concepts towards
KIBS innovation and might make special surveys redundant in the future.