IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v26y2013icp47-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ability of current statistical classifications to separate services and manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Christensen, Jesper Lindgaard

Abstract

This paper explores the performance of current statistical classification systems in classifying firms and, in particular, their ability to distinguish between firms that provide services and firms that provide manufacturing. We find that a large share of firms, almost 20%, are not classified as expected based on a comparison of their statements of activities with the assigned industry codes. This result is robust to analyses on different levels of aggregation and is validated in an additional survey. It is well known from earlier literature that industry classification systems are not perfect. This paper provides a quantification of the flaws in classifications of firms. Moreover, it is explained why the classifications of firms are imprecise. The increasing complexity of production, inertia in changes to statistical systems and the increasing integration of manufacturing products and services are some of the primary and interrelated explanations for this lack of precision. We emphasise, however, that such classification problems are not resolved using a ‘technical fix’. Any statistical classification method involves a number of tradeoffs.

Suggested Citation

  • Christensen, Jesper Lindgaard, 2013. "The ability of current statistical classifications to separate services and manufacturing," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 47-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:26:y:2013:i:c:p:47-60
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2013.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X13000416
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2013.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirk Pilat & Anita Wölfl, 2005. "Measuring the Interaction Between Manufacturing and Services," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2005/5, OECD Publishing.
    2. Kahle, Kathleen M. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1996. "The Impact of Industry Classifications on Financial Research," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 309-335, September.
    3. Vandermerwe, Sandra & Rada, Juan, 1988. "Servitization of business: Adding value by adding services," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 314-324, December.
    4. Kathleen M. Kahle & Ralph A. Walkling, "undated". "The Impact of Industry Classifications on Financial Research," Research in Financial Economics 9607, Ohio State University.
    5. Michael Peneder, 2003. "Industry Classifications: Aim, Scope and Techniques," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 109-129, March.
    6. Clarke, Richard N, 1989. "SICs as Delineators of Economic Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(1), pages 17-31, January.
    7. Hicks, Diana, 2011. "Structural change and industrial classification," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 93-105, June.
    8. Leiponen, Aija & Drejer, Ina, 2007. "What exactly are technological regimes?: Intra-industry heterogeneity in the organization of innovation activities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1221-1238, October.
    9. Victor R. Fuchs, 1965. "Introduction to "The Growing Importance of the Service Industries"," NBER Chapters, in: The Growing Importance of the Service Industries, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2001. "Patterns of innovation organisation in service firms: postal survey results and theoretical models," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 57-67, February.
    11. McCarthy, Ian & Anagnostou, Angela, 2004. "The impact of outsourcing on the transaction costs and boundaries of manufacturing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 61-71, March.
    12. Gallouj, Faiz & Weinstein, Olivier, 1997. "Innovation in services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 537-556, December.
    13. Jesper Lindgaard Christensen & Michael Dahl & Søren Eliasen & Rene Nielsen & Christian Richter Østergaard, 2011. "Patterns and Collaborators of Innovation in the Primary Sector: A Study of the Danish Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industry," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 203-225.
    14. Fertuck, Leonard, 1975. "A Test of Industry Indices Based on SIC Codes," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(5), pages 837-848, December.
    15. Jeremy Howells, 2004. "Innovation, consumption and services: encapsulation and the combinatorial role of services," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 19-36, January.
    16. Magnus Lodefalk, 2013. "Servicification of manufacturing - evidence from Sweden," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(1), pages 87-113.
    17. Guenther, David A. & Rosman, Andrew J., 1994. "Differences between COMPUSTAT and CRSP SIC codes and related effects on research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 115-128, July.
    18. Dirk Pilat & Agnès Cimper & Karsten Bjerring Olsen & Colin Webb, 2006. "The Changing Nature of Manufacturing in OECD Economies," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2006/9, OECD Publishing.
    19. Schettkat, Ronald & Yocarini, Lara, 2006. "The shift to services employment: A review of the literature," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 127-147, June.
    20. Victor R. Fuchs, 1965. "The Growing Importance of the Service Industries," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fuch65-1, March.
    21. Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2006. "Innovation, services, emplois," Post-Print halshs-00199647, HAL.
    22. Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås & Yunhee Kim, 2013. "The Role of Services for Competitiveness in Manufacturing," OECD Trade Policy Papers 148, OECD Publishing.
    23. Guerrieri, Paolo & Meliciani, Valentina, 2005. "Technology and international competitiveness: The interdependence between manufacturing and producer services," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 489-502, December.
    24. Dahlstedt, Roy & Salmi, Timo & Luoma, Martti & Laakkonen, Arto, 1994. "On the usefulness of standard industrial classifications in comparative financial statement analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 230-238, December.
    25. Dalziel, Margaret, 2007. "A systems-based approach to industry classification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1559-1574, December.
    26. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Charles M. C. Lee & Derek K. Oler, 2003. "What's My Line? A Comparison of Industry Classification Schemes for Capital Market Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 745-774, December.
    27. Jon Sundbo, 2001. "The Strategic Management of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2514.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. D’Adamo, Gaetano & Rovelli, Riccardo, 2015. "The role of the exchange rate regime in the process of real and nominal convergence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 21-37.
    2. Anders Broström & Eric Giertz, 2021. "Service development accounts for an even smaller share of European R&D investments than we may think," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1256-1267, August.
    3. D'Adamo, Gaetano & Rovelli, Riccardo, 2013. "Labor Market Institutions and the Response of Inflation to Macro Shocks in the EU: A Two-Sector Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 7616, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. D'Adamo, Gaetano & Rovelli, Riccardo, 2015. "Labour Market Institutions and Inflation Differentials in the EU," IZA Discussion Papers 9389, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zura Kakushadze & Willie Yu, 2017. "Open Source Fundamental Industry Classification," Papers 1706.04210, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2017.
    2. Rodolphe Durand & Robert M. Grant & Tammy L. Madsen & Gino Cattani & Joseph F. Porac & Howard Thomas, 2017. "Categories and competition," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 64-92, January.
    3. Zura Kakushadze & Willie Yu, 2017. "Open Source Fundamental Industry Classification," Data, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-77, June.
    4. Brickley, James A. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 2010. "Corporate governance myths: Comments on Armstrong, Guay, and Weber," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 235-245, December.
    5. Christian Weiner, 2005. "The Impact of Industry Classification Schemes on Financial Research," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-062, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    6. Yasser Alhenawi & Martha L. Stilwell, 2019. "Toward a complete definition of relatedness in merger and acquisition transactions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 351-396, August.
    7. David Flacher & Jacques Pelletan, 2007. "Le concept d'industrie et sa mesure : origines, limites et perspectives - Une application à l'étude des mutations industrielles," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 405(1), pages 13-46.
    8. van der Heijden, Hans, 2022. "Predicting industry sectors from financial statements: An illustration of machine learning in accounting research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(5).
    9. Chunxia, Yang & Xueshuai, Zhu & Luoluo, Jiang & Sen, Hu & He, Li, 2016. "Study on the contagion among American industries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 444(C), pages 601-612.
    10. Anders Broström & Eric Giertz, 2021. "Service development accounts for an even smaller share of European R&D investments than we may think," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1256-1267, August.
    11. Lisa Baudot & Zhongwei Huang & Dana Wallace, 2021. "Stakeholder Perceptions of Risk in Mandatory Corporate Responsibility Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 151-174, August.
    12. Lee, Charles M.C. & Ma, Paul & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2015. "Search-based peer firms: Aggregating investor perceptions through internet co-searches," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 410-431.
    13. Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2010. "The Innovation Gap and the Performance Gap in the Service Economies: A Problem for Public Policy," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Rinaldo Evangelista & Maria Savona, 2010. "Innovation and Employment in Services," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Daria Ciriaci & Daniela Palma, 2012. "To what extent are knowledge-intensive business services contributing to manufacturing? A subsystem analysis," JRC Research Reports JRC71097, Joint Research Centre, revised Aug 2012.
    16. Dou, Winston Wei & Ji, Yan & Wu, Wei, 2021. "Competition, profitability, and discount rates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 582-620.
    17. Garbellini, Nadia & Wirkierman, Ariel Luis, 2014. "Blocks and circularity in labour requirements: An interplay between clusters and subsystems in the EU," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 60-74.
    18. Matthieu Crozet & Emmanuel Milet, 2014. "The Servitization of French Manufacturing Firms," Working Papers 2014-10, CEPII research center.
    19. Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2008. "L'innovation gap et le performance gap dans les économies de services : un défi pour les politiques publiques," Post-Print halshs-01113900, HAL.
    20. Grimm Noh, 2019. "Strategic Decoupling in Korean Business Groups: Ambiguous Identity as a Strategy in Chaebol Groups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Industry classification; Services; Industrial dynamics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:26:y:2013:i:c:p:47-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.