Regional preconditions to shape interpath relations across regions: two cases from the Austrian food sector

Abstract

Regional restructuring in the context of societal dynamics involves the development of several, possibly interacting regional industrial paths. Conceptualizations in evolutionary economic geography and innovation studies analyze the effects of relating regional industrial paths in the same regional or national context. While policy makers at EU, national and regional scales support research and development of transformative activities in different regions across countries, scholarly contributions on interpath relations across regions and the role of regional preconditions to enable paths in shaping them are scarce. This article combines recent conceptualizations of interpath relations within regions with considerations about the multi-scalarity of asset availability and modification to conceptualize interpath relations across regions. A framework is developed to explain how reinforcing or impeding effects of interpath relations across regions are related to regional preconditions. Empirically, transformative food sector innovations initiated to tackle societal challenges are investigated as an under-researched topic in the path development literature. Two case studies in a peripheral and a core region provide exemplified results about regional differences in supporting asset modification at multiple scales and demonstrate reinforcing or impeding effects for path development resulting from interpath relations across regions. The article offers policy recommendations and presents avenues for further research.