Knowledge intensive business services and regional competitiveness

Research interest in the service sector has boomed in recent years as deindustrialisation became entrenched. Instead of being regarded as merely supplementary to traditional industry and manufacturing, services have generated progressively rising levels of growth in developed economies while at the same time coming to be recognised as major drivers of innovation.

Among the factors which have helped service companies notch up swifter growth rates than all other sectors include the outsourcing of such services by other sectors, the development of information and communication technologies, changes to the regulatory, legal and market frameworks as well as globalisation and internationalisation. The result is a cluster of highly innovative firms which can loosely be grouped under the heading of Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS).

This book charts the rise of these influential actors and their influence on regional competitiveness.