Territorial servitization and the manufacturing renaissance in knowledge-based economies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The analysis of how the development of knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) sectors in certain territories contributes to rebuild the competitive advantage of manufacturing businesses – a process described as territorial servitization – has increasingly drawn scholarly and policy attention. The collection of nine papers in this special issue brings new insights into how institutional and spatial as well as socioeconomic and industry-specific attributes underpin the development of territorial servitization. By adopting a multidisciplinary perspective that combines a variety of frameworks (organizational, place-based, economic geography), the mechanics and relationships underlying territorial servitization as well as its territorial economic repercussions are developed. This editorial first portrays territorial servitization as a local hybrid value chain and argues that effective territorial servitization requires a value adding fit between manufacturers and KIBS. Also, it provides a number of yet unresolved topics that deserve academic attention.