Exploring the relationship between KIBS co-locations and the innovativeness of manufacturing firms in Latin America

espanolLa literatura proporciona evidencia empirica sobre la importancia de la localizacion geografica para una efectiva provision de KIBS. Segun los postulados de la servitizacion territorial, los KIBS tambien son fundamentales para el desarrollo de las empresas manufactureras. A pesar de que los KIBS puede ser una fuente importante de innovacion, en America Latina aun se presta poca atencion a los KIBS, tanto desde la academia como de los responsables politicos. El proposito de esta investigacion es analizar la relacion entre la co-localizacion de los KIBS y la innovacion de las empresas manufactureras en contextos de paises emergentes. En base a la Encuesta Empresarial del Banco Mundial (WBES) para paises de America Latina, los autores analizan 3.029 empresas manufactureras utilizando el metodo MCO. Los resultados indican que la localizacion de las empresas manufactureras basadas en la proximidad de los KIBS es un determinante critico de la innovacion. Esta relacion es considerablemente mas fuerte en los paises centroamericanos, mientras que en America del Sur esta relacion es negativa, lo cual conlleva a un debate. EnglishThe literature provides empirical evidence on the importance of geographic location for an effective provision of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS). According to the postulates of territorial servitization, KIBS are also fundamental for the development of manufacturing firms. Despite this, KIBS can be an important source of innovation. In Latin America there is still little attention paid to KIBS, both from academia and from policy makers. The purpose of this research is to analyse the relationship between KIBS co-locations and the innovativeness of the manufacturing firms in context of emerging countries. Drawing on the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) for Latin-American countries, authors analysed 3,029 manufacturing firms using the OLS method. Findings indicated that manufacturing firms’ locations based on KIBS proximity, is a critical determinant of innovativeness. This relationship is considerably stronger in Central American countries, while in South America this relationship is negative, which leads to debate.