Knowledge flows across space and firms

This dissertation consists of four separate papers and an introductory chapter. The four papers can be read independently of each other but are held together by concepts around embodied knowledge: knowledge embodied in products and embodied knowledge flows. Thus the papers mainly contribute to the empirical literature on firm and regional knowledge. The rapid growth of knowledge-based industries is one of the prominent features of post-industrialism and economic growth in the industrialised part of the world. The first paper investigates the residential choice of Swedish university graduates after graduation. It also analyses what factors make them move away from their graduation region. In addition to individual characters such as age and gender, there are also regional characteristics that can either retain graduates or make them choose another residence region. The results of this paper show that large and growing regions are good at keeping their graduates but are also good at attracting graduates from other regions. The second paper examines what regional characteristics are preferable attributes in order to renew regional exports in the manufacturing sector with export products from other regions. The results indicate that to do so, regions need a specialised export support system and a large amount of sector-related knowledge. The third paper deals with the issue of how industries and regions absorb new knowledge. Focusing on the role of regional high-quality import flows, the results of this paper show that imports play an important role in regional high-quality export renewal. The fourth paper investigates how creative labour inflow affect the productivity in firms in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Labour inflow bring new knowledge and increase firm productivity but only if the incoming knowledge is firm-related, which means that the firm can absorb this new knowledge and incorporate and add it into the existing knowledge stock