Spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive business services in a small post-communist economy

Abstract

The authors examine the patterns and determinants of spatial distribution of selected knowledge-intensive business services in Czechia, a small post-communist country whose capital city holds a strong position and where a significant share of manufacturing and business R&D employment is located in non-metropolitan regions. The central research question asks to what extent the localization of knowledge-intensive business services can be explained by the position of cities in urban hierarchy. Correspondingly, the authors analyse the role of local factors such as regional economic specialization, regional firm size distribution or concentration of (high-tech) manufacturing or business R&D centres. The authors specifically concentrate on the role of large industrial centres in non-metropolitan regions and on the hypothesis of a spatial mismatch between knowledge-intensive business services and manufacturing, dispersed and overrepresented in smaller cities. Empirical results clearly confirmed the former hypothesis. Although the evidence on the latter hypothesis is more complex, it does not hold for the most of knowledge-intensive business services in Czechia.