From brawn to brains: manufacturing-KIBS interdependency

Resumen del trabajo presentado en la 4th Geography of Innovation Conference, celebrada en Barcelona (España) del 31 de enero al 02 de febrero de 2018.Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are intermediary firms that supply other firms with a wide range of consultancy activities such as screening, assessment and evaluation. The label KIBS, coined by Miles et al. (1995), powerfully synthesises the nexus between the input, knowledge, and the tradable output, information, that stands at the core of these activities. KIBS have captured the interest of scholars and policy makers alike for a number of reasons. First, the sectors in which business services operate have acquired economic significance, both in terms of the absorbed workforce and of the value added that is generated (Kox and Rubalcaba, 2007). Second, KIBS are widely appraised as innovation enablers due to their capacity to promote variety through inter-sectoral linkages (i.e. Boden and Miles 2000; Kuusisto and Meyer 2003; Ciriaci et al, 2015; Meliciani and Savona, 2014). Further, studies in economic geography emphasise the pivotal role of KIBS in the development of local innovation systems, both at the city and the regional levels (i.e. Wood et al, 1993; Strambach, 2008; Cooke and Leydesdorff, 2006; Corrocher and Cusmano, 2014). Fourth, business services are touted as an effective policy lever for countering the decline of industries or for managing uncertainty in the pursuit of new market opportunities (Den Hertog, 2000;Muller & Zenker, 2001; Koch and Stahlecker, 2006)