Abstract
As digitalization continues to fundamentally change professional work, we examine obstacles to technological innovation in the legal sector, which is a notable outlier when compared to other knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). This paper aims to explain the lower engagement with technological novelty in legal services in contrast to other KIBS spearheading global innovation. We adopted a mixed-method approach, combining both deductive and inductive inferential modes in a pragmatic manner. We used a quantitative analysis of law firms (n = 258) to establish baseline observations that were used to understand the attitudes toward the use of technology in addition to interviews with individual lawyers (n = 28). The study broadens the understanding of obstacles to digital change in small law firms operating on the periphery of the global market. Six different barriers clustered in two groups were identified: three reflect the character of individual work, two are related to law firm performance, and the last reveals an overarching problem in technology design. The discussion extends the debate on technological disruption in legal services. The reluctance to adopt digital innovations is not irrational when the drawbacks of creative disruption are considered. Endogenous change would require altering fragmented structures of local markets for companies to grow via an economy of scale. It is more likely that digital novelties will continue to develop from the global market delimited by the English language. A better understanding of obstacles to technological innovation may serve lawyers, managers, and LegalTech providers with material concerns that need to be addressed.
References
Aghion P., Howitt P. (1992) A Model of Growth Through Creative Destruction. Econometrica, 60(2), 323-351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2951599
Alarie B., Niblett A., Yoon A.H. (2018) How artificial intelligence will affect the practice of law. University of Toronto Law Journal, 68(S1), 106-124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3066816
Amara N., D'Este P., Landry R., Doloreux D. (2016) Impacts of obstacles on innovation patterns in KIBS firms. Journal of Business Research, 69(10), 4065-4073. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.045
Braga A.M., Marques C.S. (2016) Knowledge intensive business services research: A bibliometric study of leading international journal (1994-2014). In: Knowledge Intensive Services and Regional Competitiveness (eds. J.J.M. Ferreira, M.L. Raposo, C.I. Fernandes, M. Dejardin), New York: Routledge, pp. 11-47.
Brooks C., Gherhes C., Vorley T. (2020) Artificial intelligence in the legal sector: Pressures and challenges of transformation. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 13(1), 135-152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsz026
Brooks C., Vorley T., Gherhes C., Capener J. (2018) Innovation in the Professional Services Sector, Sheffield: University of Sheffield.
Bumberová V., Milichovský F. (2020) Influence of Determinants on Innovations in Small KIBS Firms in the Czech Republic before COVID-19. Sustainability, 12(19), 7856. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197856
Charmaz K. (2014) Constructing Grounded Theory (2nd ed)., Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Chichkanov N., Miles I., Belousova V. (2019) Drivers for innovation in KIBS: Evidence from Russia. The Service Industries Journal, Routledge, 41(7-8), 489-511. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2019.1570151
Chishti S., Bhatti S.A., Datoo A., Indjic D. (2020) The LegalTech Book: The Legal Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and FinTech Visionaries, New York: Wiley.
Czarniawska B. (2005) Karl Weick: Concepts, style and reflection. Sociological Review, 53, 267-278. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2005.00554.x
Davenport T.H., Kirby J. (2016) Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines, New York: Harper Business.
Eurostat (2008) NACE Rev. 2. Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Luxembourg: European Commission.
Felstiner W. (ed.) (2005) Reorganization and Resistance. Legal Professions Confront a Changing World, London: Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/reorganization-and-resistance-9781847310538/, дата обращения 22.03.2021.
Flood J., Mather L. (2013) What Do Lawyers Do?: An Ethnography of a Corporate Law Firm, Chicago, IL: Quid Pro Books.
Gaver W. (1991) Technology affordances. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '91), New York: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 79-84.
Gibson J.J. (1982) Reasons for Realism: Selected Essays of James J. Gibson (1st ed.), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gnusowski M. (2017) Konkurencyjność kancelarii prawnych. Jak zdobyć i utrzymać przewagę?, Warszawa Wolters Kluwer Polska (in Polish).
Gnusowski M. (2020) Viewpoint: Service research in Post-Soviet states and the former eastern bloc. Journal of Services Marketing, 35(2), 145-151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2020-0415
Gotsch M., Hipp C., Gallego J., Rubalcaba L. (2011) Sectoral Innovation Watch: Knowledge Intensive Services Sector, Brussels: European Commission. https://studylib.net/doc/18622439/sectoral-innovation-watch-knowledge-intensive-services, дата обращения 29.11.2021.
Hertog P.D. (2000) Knowledge-intensive Business Services as Co-producers of Innovation. International Journal of Innovation Management, 4(4), 491-528. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S136391960000024X
Hipp C., Gallego J., Rubalcaba L. (2015) Shaping innovation in European knowledge-intensive business services. Service Business, 9(1), 41-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-013-0217-7
J-Figueiredo R., Neto J.V., Quelhas O.L.G., de Ferreira J.J.M. (2017) Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS): bibliometric analysis and their different behaviors in the scientific literature: Topic 16 - Innovation and services. Revista de Administração e Inovação, 14(3), 216-225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rai.2017.05.004
Jaehun J. (2011) Adoption of Semantic Web from the perspective of technology innovation: A grounded theory approach. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69(3), 139-154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.11.002
Kobyliński Ł., Kieraś W. (2018) Part of Speech Tagging for Polish: State of the Art and Future Perspectives. In: Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing, (ed. A. Gelbukh), Heidelberg, Dordrecht, London, New York: Springer, pp. 307-319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75477-2_21
LegalTech Polska (2018) Diagnoza Potrzeb Prawników w Zakresie Wykorzystywania Narzędzi Informatycznych w Usługach Prawniczych, Warszawa: LegalTech Polska. https://www.cziitt.pw.edu.pl/diagnoza-potrzeb-prawnikow-w-zakresie-wykorzystywania-narzedzi-informatycznych-w-uslugach-prawniczych/, дата обращения 12.11.2021 (in Polish).
LexisNexis (2014) Workflow and Productivity in the Legal Industry, Chatswood (Astralia): LexisNexis. https://www.lexisnexis.com.au/en/insights-and-analysis/research-and-whitepapers/2014/2014-workflow-and-productivity-in-the-legal-industry, дата обращения 23.01.2022.
Li Y. (2016) A Semiotic Theory of Institutionalization. Academy of Management Review, 42(3), 520-547. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0274
Miles I. (2005) Knowledge intensive business services: Prospects and policies. Foresight, 7(6), 39-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680510630939
Miles I., Belousova V., Chichkanov N. (2019) Knowledge intensive business services: Innovation and occupations. Foresight, 21(3), 377-408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-11-2018-0091
Miles I., Kastrinos N., Bilderbeek R., den Hertog P., Flnagan K., Huntink W., Bouman M. (1995) Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Users, Carriers and Sources of Innovation, Brussels: European Commission.
Morgan D.L. (2014a) Pragmatism as a Paradigm for Social Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(8), 1045-1053. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413513733
Morgan D.L. (2014b) Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: A Pragmatic Approach, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781544304533
Norman D. (2013) The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, New York: Basic Books.
OECD (2018) Oslo Manual 2018: Guidelines for Collecting, Reporting and Using Data on Innovation (4th ed.), Paris: OECD. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304604-en
PWC (2018) Nowe Technologie w Pracy Prawników i Transformacje Działów Prawnych. Analizawyzwańitrendów, Warszawa: PWC Polska (in Polish). https://www.pwc.pl/pl/pdf/publikacje/2018/legaltech-2018-raport-pwc.pdf, дата обращения 14.11.2021.
Parida V., Sjödin D., Reim W. (2019) Reviewing Literature on Digitalization, Business Model Innovation, and Sustainable Industry: Past Achievements and Future Promises. Sustainability, 11(2), 391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020391
Raisch S., Krakowski S. (2021) Artificial Intelligence and Management: The Automation-Augmentation Paradox. Academy of Management Review, 46(1), 192-210. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0072
Ribstein L.E. (2010) The Death of Big Law (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 1467730). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1467730
Santos-Vijande M.L., López-Sánchez J.Á., González-Mieres C. (2012) Organizational Learning, Innovation, and Performance in KIBS. Journal of Management and Organization, 18(6), 870-904. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.2012.18.6.870
Schmidt T., Rammer C. (2007) Non-Technological and Technological Innovation: Strange Bedfellows? (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 1010301). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1010301
Schumpeter J.A. (1942) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, London: Routledge.
Scott S., Hughes P., Hodgkinson I., Kraus S. (2019) Technology adoption factors in the digitization of popular culture: Analyzing the online gambling market. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 148, 119717. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119717
Sommarberg M., Mäkinen S.J. (2019) A method for anticipating the disruptive nature of digitalization in the machine-building industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, 808-819. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.044
Steensen S. (2009) What's stopping them?. Journalism Studies, 10(6), 821-836. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700902975087
Sundbo J., Gallouj F. (1998) Innovation in Services. Work Package 3/4 from the Project Services in Innovation, Innovation in Services (SI4S), Brussels: European Commission.
Susskind R., Susskind D. (2015) The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Toivonen M. (2004) Expertise as Business: Long-Term Development and Future Prospects of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS), Helsinki: Helsinki University of Technology.
Vermeulen P.A.M., De Jong J.P.J., O'shaughnessy K.C. (2005) Identifying key determinants for new product introductions and firm performance in small service firms. The Service Industries Journal, 25(5), 625-640. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060500100783
Weick K. (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing (Topics in Social Psychology Series) (2nd ed.), New York: McGraw-Hill.
Weick K. (2005) Sensemaking in Organisations, London: Sage.
Windrum P., Tomlinson M. (1999) Knowledge-intensive Services and International Competitiveness: A Four Country Comparison. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, 11(3), 391-408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/095373299107429

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.