Regional concentration of innovative business services: testing some explanatory factors at European regional level

Abstract

This article explores the role of some traditional locational factors in explaining business services concentration at the European regional level. The link between (mainly innovative) business services and income, density, the role of the service economy or qualifications, among other variables, is assessed using specialisation indexes and multiple regression analysis for regions belonging to five European countries. Results show that the influence of locational determinants varies a great deal depending on the type of service, the region and country considered, and the presence of capital regions. This latter conclusion emphasises the importance of national differences and service peculiarities (not all innovative services behave in the same way) as explanatory factors.