Knowledge Transfer between Universities and Knowledge Intensive Business Services : An Empirical Study

In this chapter, the authors study the importance of regional entrepreneurship as well as the characteristics of location, and show that the basis for creation of new firms is knowledge, thus giving emphasis to broadcasters (spillovers) of knowledge coming from universities and other R&D institutions. Thus, the knowledge generated arises from the collaboration between companies and public research institutions (Audretsch & Lehmann, 2005). Here, the authors specifically address the KIBS to the extent that they are creators, users, and transmitters of intensive knowledge. This shows the importance of the study of cooperation between universities and firms, especially KIBS. In this sense, the empirical results demonstrate that cooperation between KIBS and universities occurs independent of their location (rural or urban) and typology (professional or technological). The authors furthermore find that rural KIBS have increased their levels of graduate employment faster than their urban KIBS peers.