Location Attributes and Start-ups in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services

This paper examines start-ups in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) across Swedish regions by individuals with a formally recognized capacity to produce and develop advanced business services. The empirical analysis focuses on whether their involvement in entrepreneurship may be explained by location attributes. As much as 75 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 of KIBS firms, it is shown that variables reflecting both supply-side conditions and market size influence KIBS start-up activity. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that KIBS entrepreneurship in a region is 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.