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

TLDR

The paper seeks to build a theory of regional diversification by integrating Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies, emphasizing the need to account for unrelated diversification, agency in institutional entrepreneurship, and spatially varying enabling and constraining factors. It aims to.

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.