'Kibsification' of private security services: Towards more knowledge-intensive security offerings

In response to many external pressures, private security companies are shifting towards more customer-specific and integrated security services. This paper discusses their transformation process towards more knowledge-intensive business services (i.e. 'kibsification') and adds a new profession and new area of support services to the debate on KIBS. The aim is to present the key challenges to accomplishing the kibsification process. The discussion is based on empirical data provided by three research projects and some company-specific development projects. To analyse the KIBS potential of security services, we take the three main characteristics of KIBS as the starting point and discuss how current security services comply with these characteristics. As a result, we identify three key challenges that security providers face in the kibsification process. We conclude that KIBS is a useful concept in security business, although some representatives of the industry show fewer KIBS features than others.