The role of business services in regional development—A new growth centre strategy?1

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Abstract
Business service is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the developed economies. Business service is important both in itself as an increasing part of the service sector, and as a prerequisite for and an integrated part of the productive sectors. With the Danish town of Esbjerg in West Jutland as a case, the paper investigates the structure and development of business services as seen from a provincial centre. Based on the empirical results the paper argues that even though the growth centre strategies of the 1960s for good reasons have been rejected, the theoretical basis for these strategies, namely the idea of growth based on a local network of interacting, innovative firms, still seems to be valid. However, as our present understanding of both innovation and interfirm trade is very different from the understanding on which the growth centre strategies of the 1960s were based the new growth centre strategy will be very different.

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