Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development

Abstract

Path creation is a key concept in economic geography. So far, particularly scholars within evolutionary economic geography have pioneered research on this topic. This paper critically discusses their work and proposes a broader understanding of how new economic activities emerge in regions, which is referred to here as 'new regional industrial path development'. The paper develops a future research agenda, which stresses the need to develop a multi-actor and multi-scalar approach, to integrate the future into analyses of path development, and to offer a broader view on inter-path relations.

Beyond the Single Path View: Interpath Dynamics in Regional Contexts

“…First, potential relationships between multiple new paths have so far been neglected in the literature on new path development and industrial diversification. Second, existing concepts only consider positive relationships between paths whereas negative path interdependencies are left out (Boschma et al 2017;Hassink, Isaksen, and Trippl 2019). Third, interpath linkages are narrowly conceptualized.…”

“…What is more, several paths may also produce for the same market. Furthermore, the RIS perspective enables consideration of multiple actors involving firm and nonfirm actors such as research and educational institutes, policy actors, as well as support organizations for analyzing path development activities (Trippl, Grillitsch, and Isaksen 2018;Hassink, Isaksen, and Trippl 2019). These actors can either belong to one particular regional industrial path, or-what we want to specifically emphasize-they come from different industrial paths and undertake agency through interaction.…”

“…Recent work has forged a link between EEG and the regional innovation system (RIS) concept to better understand why some types of regions are more likely than others to develop new growth paths (Isaksen and Trippl 2017;Trippl, Grillitsch, and Isaksen 2018). Other scholars have proposed a stronger integration of EEG with the global production network (GPN) approach (MacKinnon 2012), geographic political economy frameworks (Dawley 2014;Dawley et al 2015), and the technological innovation system (TIS) concept (Binz, Truffer, and Coenen 2016) to incorporate a wider set of factors into analyses of new path development (Hassink, Isaksen, and Trippl 2019;MacKinnon et al 2019).…”

“…The vast majority of conceptualizations and empirical case studies have adopted a single path view, that is, they have been focused on one path or new path development activities in one industrial sector only. This focus has only recently been criticized (Steen and Hansen 2018;Hassink, Isaksen, and Trippl 2019;MacKinnon et al 2019) and a comprehensive discussion of interpath dynamics and an outline of respective implications for empirics and policy are still missing. With this article, we seek to stimulate the debate over interpath interactions.…”

Challenges of knowledge combination in strategic regional innovation processes - the Creative Science Park in Aveiro

“…Given this complexity there is a need to consider in detail the way that actors' behaviours in these coalitions lead to overall changes in the regional innovation environment (Benneworth, Pinheiro, & Karlsen, 2017;Hassink, Isaksen, & Trippl, 2019;Sotarauta, 2018). Activated agency approaches note that stakeholder groups working together to address regional challenges can compensate for the fact that any single organization may lack sufficient capabilities to develop and implement regional solutions (Arenas, Sanchez, & Murphy, 2013).…”