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Location Attributes and Start-Ups in Knowledge Intensive Business Services

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Author Info
Andersson, Martin () (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)
Hellerstedt, Karin () (JIBS and Centre for Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship and Growth (CISEG))

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Abstract

We study start-ups in Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) across regions in Sweden by individuals with a formally recognized capacity to produce and develop advanced business services. The empirical analysis is based on a theoretical framework which emphasizes both supply- and demand-side factors. Supply-side variables pertain to accessibility to knowledge and information upon which a new firm can be established. Demand-side variables refer to market-size and pertain to the ability to recover fixed start-up costs and economize on costs associated with face-to-face interaction. 78 percent of the KIBS founders have prior work experience from business services, suggesting that KIBS start-ups are more frequent in regions where the KIBS sector is already large. Controlling for the stock of potential entrepreneurs and the stock KIBS firms, we show that both supply- and demand-side factors influence KIBS start-up activity. Results are consistent with that KIBS start-ups are stimulated by the simultaneous presence of (i) knowledge resources conducive for the generation and diffusion of knowledge and ideas upon which new firms can be established and (ii) a large market. The findings suggest that the geography of KIBS is shaped in cumulative and self-reinforcing processes, and can explain the tendency of KIBS firms to agglomerate in large city-regions.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies in its series Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation with number 116.

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Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: 27 Feb 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0116

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Postal: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 790 95 63
Web page: http://www.infra.kth.se/cesis/
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Related research
Keywords: knowledge intensive business services knowledge spillovers start-ups entrepreneurship location

Find related papers by JEL classification:
L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
L84 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Personal, Professional, and Business Services
R12 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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This page was last updated on 2008-7-5.


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