ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the current opportunities and challenges in the Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) sector and anticipates their further development. It describes the scenarios and policy options built and recognised in the working group for innovation in the High Level Expert Group on Business Services an initiative of European Commission. The members of the group represented both academia and business life. In order to elaborate the policy-focused work of HLG for scientific purposes, the produced material has been re-analysed and its linkages to relevant literature have been substantially strengthened. The chapter describes the method in which the scenarios on the futures of KIBS were built in the working group of HLG. It presents the results: four scenarios, two of which are driven by topical developments in the operational environment and the other two by developments in the business of KIBS and their clients respectively.