Knowledge-intensive territorial servitization: regional driving forces and the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes how regional manufacturing characteristics, i.e., specialization and the size of new manufacturers, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, i.e., contextual factors driving entrepreneurial actions, impact the rate of new knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms. Its spatial analysis of 121 European regions reveals that the entrepreneurial ecosystem plays a decisive role in supporting KIBS formation rates in territories with a solid industrial fabric. The economic potential of more attractive neighbouring regions can be detrimental to regional KIBS formation rates. The study offers valuable implications on how the entrepreneurial ecosystem can facilitate the interaction between manufacturing and KIBS firms.

KEYWORDS:

• territorial servitization
• entrepreneurial ecosystem
• regional entrepreneurship and development index (REDI)
• knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS)

JEL:

• L26
• O14
• O52
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For their ideas and insightful comments that contributed to improve this paper, the authors thank László Szerb and Attila Varga (University of Pécs, Hungary). Krisztina Horváth acknowledges support from the Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Center (RIERC), Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs, Hungary. The usual disclaimer applies.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Krisztina Horváth http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1393-3515

Rodrigo Rabetino http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8567-2559

Notes

1. We also considered Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) Rev. 2 codes, regional data in the EUROSTAT Regional Database and included only those industries that had available data for the overall number of KIBS businesses in the analyzed regions.

2. The timing of the GEM annual population survey allows one to distinguish between businesses created in the same year of the survey (firms with fewer than six months of market experience) and firms created years before the survey. This criterion leads to a definition of new businesses as those firms with fewer than 42 months of market experience.