Irving Wladawsky-Berger has an excellent blog post regarding a little understood area of innovation. That is the role of science in the service sector—the major employer in advanced economies. Excerpt from post follows:
The Royal Society, - the UK's national academy of science, - recently released a report: Hidden Wealth: the contribution of science to service sector innovation.
This excellent report represents the findings of a major study on the role of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to innovation in the services sector. It is one of the most comprehensive investigations of the impact of services innovation in the 21st century. The services sector is by far the largest in the global economy, comprising about 65 percent of the world's overall GDP, and between 70 and 80 percent in countries with more advanced economies. Most of the working population in such countries are employed in services in one way or another, - roughly two thirds of all jobs in Brazil, Japan and the European Union and around 80 percent in the UK and the US.
This new report is very important and timely, given that the creation of well paying jobs is currently among the highest priorities not only in the UK, but also in the US and many other countries around the world. As the report says:
"Our main conclusion, . . . is that services are very like to remain central to the new economy, not least because we are at or near a tipping point: innovations now underway seem likely to change dramatically the way we live and to generate many services (though few can be predicted in detail at present). . . ."
The study revealed that STEM is omnipresent in the service sector, but, unlike the case in the industrial sector, its impact is rarely recognized:
"Scientific and technological developments (many of which originated in fundamental 'blue skies' research), have precipitated major transformations in services industries and public services, most notably through the advent of the internet and world-wide-web . . . However, the full extent of STEM's current contribution is hidden from view - it is not easily visible to those outside the process and is consequently under-appreciated by the service sector, policymakers and the academic research community. This blind spot threatens to hinder the development of effective innovation policies and the development of new business models and practices in the UK."
The Hidden Wealth study, as its very title indicates, makes the point that even though services constitute such a large portion of GDP and jobs around the world, their nature remains vague - hidden from view in plain sight as if it were some kind of dark matter. It is easier to define the services sector by what it does not include: it is not agriculture or fishing, and it is not manufacturing, construction or mining. Just about every other job is in services.
Link to Irving Wladawsky-Berger blog: Hidden Wealth: Science, Technology and Services Innovation in the 21st Century
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