In Germany, but in other countries as well, a trend towards a regionalisation in technol-ogy and innovation policy is clearly evident. This triggers the expectation towards universities to establish regional ties and networks and to exploit the advantages of spatial proximity to other research...

According to the Barca report and the OECD, the place-based development approach is a new paradigm of regional policy. It underlines the necessity to distribute policy de-sign and implementation among different policy levels in order to tailor policy measures to the specific local conditions....

A key feature of the knowledge-based economy is a remarkable increase in the number, foundation rates, and employees of knowledge-intensive business service firms (KIBS). KIBS are knowledge-intensive, in the sense that they are founded upon highly specialised knowledge. Based on the assumption...