ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we look at the current status and development trends in knowledge intensive business services (hereinafter referred to as KIBS) in the Czech Republic. As examples, we have chosen two cities – Prague (the capital city) and Brno (the second largest city in the Czech Republic and the largest in Moravia). Both have a long tradition in industrial production, but their current development epitomises the transformation associated with the emergence of the analysed sector. In order to explore its development in the Czech Republic, we adopted the historical evolutionist approach (David, 2007), which will enable us to describe the background for the emergence of KIBS, explain the sector’s links with the previous trajectory of industrial production, and better understand the turning point in the development of the economy, which consists in a shift from a manufacturing to a service economy. We illustrate this process with case studies of investment in this sector in Prague and in Brno as we explore the development and specific features of outsourcing, offshoring, and the global business services sector in the Czech Republic.
