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Przegląd Europejski – European Studies Quarterly

The crisis robustness of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) exports

2026, No. 1

Joanna Wyszkowska-Kuna

0000-0002-0750-1719

University of Lodz (Lodz, Poland)

DOI

10.31338/1641-2478pe.1.26.4

Publication date

28.04.2026

Submission date

13.11.2025

Acceptance date

24.04.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

international relations, economics and finance, political and administrative sciences, sociology, management and quality studies, social communication and media studies, law

Language of publication

English

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Article

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Number of downloads:50

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the robustness, resilience, and vulnerability of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) exports to a crisis. The hypothesis tested is that KIBS exports are crisis-robust rather than crisis-resilient. The study covers the period from 2004 to 2023, divided into two crisis periods (the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic), three non-crisis periods, and two recovery years. The growth rates of exports for the KIBS sectors are calculated and compared for these periods and with other services sectors. The study is based on data from Eurostat and refers to Poland compared with the EU-27 averages. This study contributes to the literature by: (1) demonstrating that it is advisable to conduct sectoral research while studying the vulnerability of services trade to a crisis; (2) demonstrating how different modes of services delivery can affect the vulnerability of exports to a crisis, with reference to various KIBS categories; (3) examining the vulnerability of KIBS exports in the light of differences between two recent global crises; (4) indicating the areas of KIBS exports that are robust, resilient or vulnerable to the examined crises compared to the exports of other services. The empirical results demonstrate that KIBS steadily increased its shares in services exports during both the crisis and non-crisis periods. This upward trend was stronger in Poland than on average in the EU-27. As a result, the significant disparity between the shares of KIBS in exports in Poland and the EU-27 average nearly disappeared during the examined period. KIBS exports can be considered robust during both crises; but in Poland, this was the case only during the pandemic. On the other hand, Polish KIBS exports significantly increased their crisis robustness between 2009 and 2020, which was not the case for the EU-27 average. The robustness is visible mainly in the exports of those KIBS that are identified as “the leading exported services” in Polish exports, i.e. accounting, auditing, bookkeeping, and tax consulting services; business and management consulting and public relations services and computer services (during both crises); legal services; R&D services and engineering services (during the pandemic). The exports of most other services appeared to be crisis resilient rather than crisis robust, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

European Union,Poland,services,KIBS,exports,international trade,crisis,resilience,robustness,vulnerability to a crisis

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