Trinidad and Tobago's oil and gas industry is well established and is one of the oldest in the world, which has led to a large and growing number of oil and gas Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms. These firms provide advanced technological or professional knowledge as intensive inputs into the business processes of other organizations. This paper aims to investigate innovation in KIBS firms in the oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago, and to identify market and government failures that hinder their development to inform policy making. The factors that increase KIBS firm's likelihood of introducing an innovation are firm size, age, number of customers, internal research and development, and the use of external information. Moreover, several market failures hinder their potential for innovation and technology diffusion, including information asymmetries, difficulty in obtaining finance, lack of appropriate skills, and limited partnerships/collaboration with research institutions. This study recommends the development of a national innovation policy and program, greater dialogue, and clear communication channels among all industry stakeholders, and the expansion of several existing local policy initiatives, including trade missions and corporate governance programs and training and skills through tertiary educational institutes.

特立尼达和多巴哥的石油和天然气工业已经建立并且是世界上最古老的工业之一，这导致了石油和天然气知识密集型商业服务（KIBS）公司的数量不断增长。这些公司提供先进的技术或专业知识，作为对其他组织业务流程的密集投入。本文旨在调查特立尼达和多巴哥石油和天然气行业的KIBS公司的创新，并确定阻碍其发展的市场和政府失灵，从而为决策提供依据。增加KIBS公司进行创新的可能性的因素是公司规模，年龄，客户数量，内部研发和外部信息的使用。此外，一些市场失灵阻碍了其创新和技术传播的潜力，包括信息不对称，获取资金困难，缺乏适当的技能以及与研究机构之间有限的伙伴关系/合作。这项研究建议制定一项国家创新政策和计划，加强所有行业利益相关者之间的对话，并建立清晰的沟通渠道，并扩大一些现有的地方政策措施，包括贸易代表团和公司治理计划以及通过高等教育机构提供的培训和技能。