Towards a Taxonomy of External Service Inputs - An Empirical Evaluation with Portuguese Data

Resumo/Abstract: In recent decades, profound changes have taken place in the structure of economic activities. With the ongoing process of tertiarisation, these changes have resulted in an increasing prevalence of service-sector activity in the world economy. Like other OECD countries, Portugal has followed the general trend towards an increasing service sector, with many kinds of such services being used as inputs by manufacturing industry. After having identified the diversity of services in relation to the sequence of the tertiarisation of economic activities, the purpose of this paper is, through the application of an adequate taxonomy to the years 1996 and 2004, to identify the kind of external services used by the Portuguese manufacturing industry, analysing the possible effects of that use. The data show a low use of input in relation to knowledge-based services, pointing to a structural weakness relative to the EU average, indicating a negative influence on industrial performance and a consequent weakness in terms of competitiveness.

Outros seminários / Other seminars: Programa completo / Full programme.