ABSTRACT
Service industries are significant contributors to global economic growth. The service sector contributes more than 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in most advanced markets (AMs) and approximately 40 per cent of GDP in emerging markets (EMs). This chapter explores the preferences and perspectives of relationships within supply networks and the knowledge sought by Australian service firms in the knowledge-intensive sectors when entering the emerging markets (EMs) of East Asia. The nature of services in terms of their intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability implies that the locus of knowledge resides at the customer end of the supply chain in service provision. The chapter presents a review of the literature on service internationalisation, emphasising the importance of relational interactions in building appropriate knowledge. It describes the survey method and follow-up interviews used to obtain data from a sample of Australian service firms, in a diverse range of knowledge-intensive industries.
