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Is Human Capital the Key Factor in Explaining Business Location Differences? Knowledge Intensive Business Services in Portugal

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Soft Computing in Management and Business Economics

Part of the book series: Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing ((STUDFUZZ,volume 287))

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to verify if the human capital is the key factor in explaining business location differences on Portuguese knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) sector. A logistic regression model is applied, adopting rural versus urban and human resources as the key dimensions. We combine business locations with graduate employee rates to assess whether these aspects are determinant in the KIBS sector or if they vary from firm to firm. Our results demonstrate that rural professional and technological KIBS employ more graduate human resources than urban KIBS. As regards their urban professional and technological KIBS counterparts, we may statistically state that the employment of higher education qualified professionals is not related to KIBS type. Furthermore, we conclude that the employment of graduate human resources, the age and the academic background of business owners do have a statistically significant impact on the logit probability of a KIBS company locating in a rural environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Management and Economics Department, University of Beira Interior, Pólo IV – Edifício Ernesto Cruz, 6200-209, Covilhã, Portugal

    João J. M. Ferreira

  2. NECE – Research of Business Science, University of Beira Interior, Pólo IV – Edifício Ernesto Cruz, 6200-209, Covilhã, Portugal

    João J. M. Ferreira & Cristina I. Fernandes

  3. Polithecnic Institute of Bragança, Bragança, Portugal

    Cristina I. Fernandes

  4. Instituto Superior de Línguas e Administração de Leiria (ISLA), Leiria, Portugal

    Cristina I. Fernandes

Authors
  1. João J. M. Ferreira
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  2. Cristina I. Fernandes
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Correspondence to João J. M. Ferreira .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 690, Barcelona, 08034, Spain

    Anna M. Gil-Lafuente

  2. Department of Business Administration, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 690, Barcelona, 08034, Spain

    Jaime Gil-Lafuente

  3. Department of Business Administration, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 690, Barcelona, 08034, Spain

    José M. Merigó-Lindahl

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Ferreira, J.J.M., Fernandes, C.I. (2012). Is Human Capital the Key Factor in Explaining Business Location Differences? Knowledge Intensive Business Services in Portugal. In: Gil-Lafuente, A., Gil-Lafuente, J., Merigó-Lindahl, J. (eds) Soft Computing in Management and Business Economics. Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, vol 287. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30451-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30451-4_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30450-7

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