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Innovation policy in services: The development of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in Finland

Marja Toivonen
Research Director, Innovation Management Institute (IMI), Helsinki University of Technology Hut, Finland

Abstract

This paper starts from the observation that policy-oriented discussion and policy-oriented studies in the sector of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) have been rare despite the central role that this sector has been argued to play in innovation. Finland is one country where activities for the development of KIBS have recently been initiated both at the national and the regional level.

This paper describes and analyses these activities. National and regional KIBS studies form an important starting point in all of them. In the practical conclusions, a common feature is the emphasis on the simultaneous development of both the demand and supply sides. The need to link KIBS to innovation systems has been identified particularly at the regional level.

Keywords

knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), innovative services, services development, innovation policy, technology programmes, regional innovation

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