Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies

2017/01/02 by Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken +1 · 12 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis #Regional resilience and development #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies

paper · doi:10.1080/00343404.2016.1258460

Abstract

Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification should not only build on the current understanding of related diversification but also account for processes of unrelated diversification by looking at the role of agency in processes of institutional entrepreneurship, and at enabling and constraining factors at various spatial scales. This paper proposes a typology of four regional diversification trajectories by cross-tabulating related versus unrelated diversification with niche creation versus regime adoption, and it develops a number of propositions.

Citations

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• Related Variety and Regional Development: A Critique
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