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

Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken, Bernhard Truffer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-45
Number of pages15
JournalRegional Studies
Volume51
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Jan 2

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Economic Geography

Free keywords

  • Evolutionary Economic Geography
  • institutional change
  • institutional entrepreneurship
  • regional diversification
  • Transition Studies
  • unrelated diversification

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this