Title: KIBS startups in the Stuttgart region: a surprisingly below-average rate?

Authors: Thomas Stahlecker, Emmanuel Muller

Addresses: Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Karlsruhe, Germany. ' Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Karlsruhe, Germany; Universite Louis Pasteur Strasbourg I, France; University of Applied Sciences Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract: Although the Stuttgart region is among the top performing regions in the European Union (EU) in terms of Research and Development (R&D) expenditures, employment and overall competitiveness, a clear weakness regarding the startup intensity of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms can be observed. In this research note, it is argued that the Stuttgart region shows the structural characteristics of a routinised technological regime, in which below-average startup and closure rates in the KIBS area occur. Within this context, survivors and growing KIBS startups presumably adapt quite successfully to the existing institutional setup in the region.

Keywords: knowledge-intensive business services; KIBS; startups; Stuttgart; routinised technology regime; Germany; Stuttgart region.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2008.022126

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.10 No.2/3/4, pp.330 - 336

Published online: 19 Dec 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article