ABSTRACT
Debates about the nature of the global economy have become increasingly focused on the important role played by knowledge-intensive industries, and in particularly the professional business services sector (Hermelin 1997, Harrington and Daniels 2006). This category – professional business services – of course covers a whole range of industries and sub-sectors including financial services, ICT, advertising, marketing, legal services – to name just a few (c.f. Strom and Mattsson 2005). All are knowledge-intensive industries, although most attention has been paid within the social scientific literature to sectors like banking and management consultancy which are argued to be at the forefront of economic globalization (Sassen 2001, Wood 2002, 2006), both in terms of the transnationalization of business service firms themselves, and also their role in facilitating the development of ‘corporate globality’ in firms across all sectors (Aharoni and Nucham 2000). Whether it is the role played by investment banks in financing the global economy, or management consultants in advising firms how to invest overseas, business services are seen as playing a key part in enabling global economic interconnectedness (Jones 2003, Roberts 2006, Aslesen et al. 2008).
