Knowledge intensive services in society 4.0

The contribution brings attention to the growing role of knowledge intensive services in the Society 4.0. Faculty of Economics of the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň joined forces with the Institute of Technology and Economics in Ceske Budějovice in the project “Knowledge-intensive services sector adaptation to the conditions of Society 4.0” supported by the programme ETA of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. This contribution summarizes the research results of the completed first phase of the project: the development of two studies focused on identification, analysis and evaluation of methods and tools for knowledge intensive services adaptation and catalogue of requirements to competencies and skills to the changing jobs. Those studies were complemented by the questionnaire research among the relevant companies in Plzeň and South Bohemia regions followed by semi-structured interviews with managers of selected companies. The presented findings, observations, recommendations and feedback from business practice form the basis for the second phase of the project, which is focused on creating a methodology for adapting small and medium-sized enterprises in the services sector to the conditions of Society 4.0.