The decisive role of the knowledge-based economy, and the importance of the ventures fostering the use of innovation and incorporating knowledge, high technology and creativity are nowadays worldwide recognised, even more so considering that the EU is in a permanent search for innovation as a source of and for competitiveness. Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are expected to play a key role in the knowledge-based economy as a source of innovation and knowledge in production, dynamic hubs in knowledge-related networks, or intermediaries of innovation between the manufacturing sector and suppliers, partners and final consumers. Within this context, in the present paper we aim to investigate the complex relation between the knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) and the imperative of fostering the economic activity, both of the entrepreneurial dynamics and their macroeconomic effects. The analysis, performed at EU level, leads to interesting results, revealing a complex but contradictory relation between KIBS and economic activity, which is measured by the following main indicators: entrepreneurial density and macroeconomic dynamics.

Within the general concept of companies, start-ups are, more practically than theoretically, a distinct category including the so-called newly born companies struggling for existence and confirmation. Although theories of start-ups are still emerging, it is known that these companies are set up to put in practice great ideas and they grow to reach the success desired by their founders. The definition is, from a strict scientific point of view, approximate and quite inconsistent, which is why the clarification of the category of start-ups can be done using contributions from the theories of management, organization, complexity, and entrepreneurship or life stages, while admitting that a clear picture of these entities is not yet available. Regardless of the multitude of perspectives, researchers and practitioners agree that growth is therefore an essential part in the development, consolidation and orientation of start-ups. It is therefore not uncommon to find that the vast majority of European start-ups are interested in internationalizing, or expanding their internationalization, in the immediate future, despite considerable difficulties and challenges, exacerbated by lack of experience and the market power of new companies. The situation of start-ups in Romania is a bit more complex and certainly not as enthusiastic - a series of constraints, objectives and subjective, make the expansion on new markets an option not as attractive for young small and medium Romanian companies.

Companies’ creation and growth are a fervently debated topic in the literature and economic policies, at least for the fact that they are related to maintaining a critical number of active companies, an essential aspect of the functioning of the economy and society. Growth is associated with overcoming the stage of survival and ensures the development and consolidation of existing companies, meanwhile the establishment of the new ones means the replacement of those that disappear from the economic landscape. The launch and expansion of young companies could lead to a positive balance in terms of employment, income, incentive of demand to other sectors and regions, boosting their development. New firms are often associated with innovation and technological change, competitiveness and competition on the market. The survival, growth and consolidation of companies occurs not only as a result of quantitative accumulations, but also as a result of the incorporation of new technologies, an open attitude towards innovation, whether it is technical, managerial or commercial. Growth is therefore a normal phenomenon in the life of a company, which must be encouraged and supported by public measures as part of a smart and forward-looking economic policy. Growth may be local, but it usually takes place at national, regional and international levels. In the first part of this article we have presented and discussed the theoretical background as it results of previous researches and official studies and reports, internationalization opportunities and some features and trends of internationalization of companies in the EU, and Romania, respectively. We now present our investigation to determine whether, and to what extent, internationalisation is relevant to start-ups, if there is a possible correlation between the 6 selected indicators of internationalisation as revealed by World Bank Data on one hand, and the number of start-ups in Romania on the other hand.