Schriftenreihe/Nr.:
38th Congress of the European Regional Science Association: "Europe Quo Vadis? - Regional Questions at the Turn of the Century", 28 August - 1 September 1998, Vienna, Austria
Zusammenfassung:
Reviews recent research on the growth of `knowledge-intensive services' (KIS), based on processes of consultancy. This trend is a significant symptom of new divisions of labour in the provision of key technical and business expertise especially to the corporate sector. KIS growth is regionally highly concentrated in all European countries, but their influence on patterns and rates of change in other sectors is perhaps becoming even more significant across all regions. Global consultancies, in particular, now link global, national and local sources of expertise, exerting a powerful influence on national and regional KIS through both competitive and collaborative processes. Important elements of economies, including small-medium firms, and peripheral regions may not benefit from these changes, thus accentuating patterns of unequal economic development.