Evolutionary Economic Geography Research Articles

Policy action for green restructuring in specialized industrial regions

Combining insights from evolutionary economic geography and socio-technical transition studies, this article provides a conceptual framework and a theory-informed empirical analysis of policy dimensions for regional green restructuring. The combination of these two perspectives allows the application and confrontation of analytical concepts with the particularities of regions, with a specific focus on the role of policy to ensure directionality. Empirically our discussion is illustrated by a case study of Western Norway, a specialized industrial region. We focus on the role of policy for the development of new green technology pathways within this region. We observe that different industry transition pathways within a region are influenced by various combinations of policy action, and that policy for regional green restructuring includes complex policy mixes initiated at different levels of governance. Our framework provides a suitable scheme for assessing the role of policy for green restructuring in regions.

Forging connections: The role of ‘boundary spanners’ in globalising clusters and shaping cluster evolution

Synthesising the endogenous-centred evolutionary economic geography perspective, and the globally oriented ‘global pipelines’ and global production networks frameworks, this article develops the ‘boundary spanner’ concept to propose a theoretical framework to illustrate how resourceful actors, as boundary spanners, globalise clusters and in turn drive cluster evolution. This framework comprises four interrelated cluster boundary-spanning functions, namely, discursive construction, innovation promotion, production coordination and market reach. This article aims to advance the cluster literature by unpacking how clusters’ global connections are constructed and maintained, conceptualising the multidimensional role of the agency of boundary spanners and demonstrating boundary spanners’ contributions to cluster evolution.

Digital skills, relatedness and green diversification: A study of European regions

Prior research identifies relatedness as a key driver of new specializations in the domain of green technologies. The present paper extends the evolutionary economic geography framework by focussing on digital literacy. Specifically, we argue that workforce skills associated with the use and development of ICT technologies are an important, if understudied, determinant of regional diversification into new green technologies. Accordingly, we analyse their relationships with relatedness and green diversification using panel data on 142 European regions for the period 2006 – 2013. We find that e-skills endowment is a positive predictor of regions’ ability to specialise in new technological domains, and especially for green specializations. Further, e-skills negatively moderate the effect of relatedness on technological diversification. These results call attention to the potential of digitalisation in the context of the transition towards a greener economy.

Retheorizing industrial–institutional coevolution: a multidimensional perspective

ABSTRACT Evolutionary economic geography has sought to understand the development of regional industrial pathways but tended to neglect both the multiscalarity of economic development and the role of institutional change. The concept of coevolution seeks to bridge this gap but is still too vague for empirical application. Understanding the interactions between path development and institutional change in regional economies and on higher spatial scales requires retheorizing coevolution along the dimensions of institutional–industrial coevolution, path multiplicity and multiscalarity. The article proposes such a retheorized concept of coevolution by integrating concepts of path development, institutions, institutional change, institutional entrepreneurship, institutional work and nestedness.

Solar labor market transitions in the United Arab Emirates

Here we examine the labor and human capital dimensions of the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) efforts to transition from an oil rich countryto a solar energy hub. Building on research from energy geography and evolutionary economic geography, we study the path dependence of oil development, the structural differences between oil and solar labor markets, and the ability of solar energy to serve as an alternative source of employment for the citizens of a rentier state. We accomplish this by presenting results from an original survey of UAE solar firms and key informant interviews with industry representatives. Our findings indicate that despite the predilection for framing renewable energy investment as a transition, solar energy development in the UAE is enabled by the presence of an oil economy and is both co-constructive and restrained by these dynamics. We conclude with the implications of the study for renewable labor market transitions in oil economies of the Middle East and beyond.

Motorsport Valley revisited: Cluster evolution, strategic cluster coupling and resilience

Over 20 years ago a series of papers identified a strikingly dominant economic cluster – the UK’s Motorsport Valley (MSV) – which led to MSV becoming an international exemplar of concepts such as agglomeration, clusters and knowledge-driven systems of regional development. Utilising an evolutionary perspective on cluster development, this paper asks ‘whatever happened to MSV?’. Drawing on the framework of strategic cluster coupling, four cluster development episodes are conceptualised that each depict the dynamic evolution of the cluster’s multi-scalar institutional environment, strategic coupling trajectories and economic development outcomes. Reflecting the emerging synthesis between evolutionary economic geography and geographical political economy, the paper describes an extended case study of cluster development, an evolutionary process of strategic cluster coupling and, ultimately, an example of cluster resilience. Through a focus on strategic cluster coupling, the paper provides further understanding of cluster evolution and path development mechanisms at key moments of cluster reconfiguration – and an empirical update and continuation of the economic story and cluster lifecycle of MSV.

Costs, incentives, and institutions in bridging evolutionary economic geography and global production networks

ABSTRACT Two of the most influential strands in economic geography and regional studies – evolutionary economic geography and global production networks – have run on parallel tracks with limited cross-fertilization. The Regional Studies Annual Lecture 2020 paper by Henry Yeung proposes building bridges across both strands to improve our understanding of the uneven distribution and evolution of economic activity across the world. He puts forward the concept of strategic coupling as the foundation of such bridges. In this reply I argue that strategic coupling will not suffice, unless the variations in costs and incentives for engaging in networks and the different capacity of cities and regions to assimilate the benefits of innovation diffusion through networks are taken into consideration.

Adaptive capacities and social resilience on Kangaroo Island: Beyond the staples trap

AbstractThis article uses the lens of evolutionary economic geography to consider adaptive capacities and forms of social resilience that manifest in rural, primary commodity‐dependent regions in the face of structural forces to which such regions seem predisposed. Using a case study of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, the article explores the demographic and social impacts that a sudden and dramatic commodity market collapse in the 1990s had on this rural economy and community and on its regional development. During late 2017 and early 2018, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with six representatives of the Kangaroo Island business community, including those from the farm, tourism, and small business sectors (three interviews) and from local government (one interview), as well as with a former rural financial counsellor and the former Commissioner for Kangaroo Island. Although the collapse of the wool market and of a flawed managed investment scheme for agroforestry had dramatically negative impacts on local economic and social systems, the Island's subsequent demographic recovery and Islanders' ongoing commitments to their sporting clubs both point to considerable adaptive capacities and social resilience. The research highlights what can be achieved by people with high levels of place attachment and commitment, as individuals and as collectives also able to draw on support scales beyond the local.

Spawning exaptive opportunities in European regions: The missing link in the smart specialization framework

There is growing interest in how regions diversify into new growth paths and why those differ in their capacity to do so. The European Union has recently implemented a framework program, the smart specialization strategy, meant to forge the capacity of regions to lever on their already existing specializations to diversify into new technological pathways. This framework program has been strongly influenced by the dominant perspective in the literature of evolutionary economic geography that mainly emphasizes the role of technological relatedness and knowledge complexity. However, some scholars express their concern about the capacity of smart specialization strategy to promote radical and breakthrough innovation. Not to mention that very few regional studies discuss exaptation as a form of boundary breakthrough innovation unfolding the technological silent link between two separated technological evolutionary pathways. From this perspective, since exaptation might play a role as a complementary source of smart specialization, our contribution is to explore the impact of technological relatedness and knowledge complexity on the capacity of regions to spawn exaptive opportunities. In so doing, we reveal that, on the one hand, this capacity can be slowed down by a strategically predefined development process focusing on existing technologically related linkages; and on the other hand, extending the knowledge complexity of regional portfolio can positively balance the negative effect of technological relatedness in the long-run.

Change agency and reproductive agency in the course of industrial path evolution

ABSTRACT The literature integrating an agency perspective with evolutionary economic geography (EEG) has tended to focus on change agency. This paper introduces a distinction between change agency and reproductive agency. The variegated agency understanding is integrated within a path-as-process perspective. By investigating three cases of rural tourism development, changes in types of agency in the course of path evolution are elucidated. It emerges that both change and reproductive agency are important for industry path development. Thus, the article contributes to a more dynamic and nuanced understanding of the role of agency in path evolution, expanding the hitherto change-oriented agency literature in EEG.

Going beyond Relatedness: Regional Diversification Trajectories and Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Italian Regions

abstract We propose a new approach to regional diversification that, going beyond relatedness, investigates regions’ capacity to move along different diversification trajectories. By integrating evolutionary economic geography and transition studies, we focus on the patterns of regional diversification that emerge by retaining its place and path dependence and argue that local endowment of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) has a role in their sequential unfolding for escaping lock-in situations. Combining patent and employment data for Italian NUTS-3 regions, we run a series of ordered logit models and find that regions with more KETs knowledge are actually better able to engage in unrelated diversification trajectories but only when KETs are used by other local technologies.

The role of system-building agency in regional path creation: insights from the emergence of artificial intelligence in Montreal

ABSTRACT The emergence of new industries that are not closely related to existing regional paths remains an underexplained process in evolutionary economic geography. This paper responds to this gap through a case study of a maturing ecosystem of activity related to artificial intelligence in Montreal, Canada. Conceptually it brings together recent thinking in economic geography about agency in path development with complementary concepts from the literature on technological innovation systems. The empirical findings demonstrate the role of multiple agents in system-building and legitimation activities that have varied across pre-formative and formative phases of new path development in this analytical knowledge field.

Human Agency and Tourism Development in Natural National Parks in the Context of the Colombian Armed Conflict

The goal of this research is to explore through evolutionary and relational economic geography how the human agency of local communities, organized armed groups, and the central government together shape the evolutionary trajectory of a national natural park as a tourist destination where armed conflict is present. The research was conducted in El Cocuy National Natural Park in Colombia and focuses on the period after the arrival of the High Mountain Battalion in 2003. Data collected from 11 key informants in semistructured interviews were analyzed with Atlas. ti and complemented with documentary analysis. The results show the dynamics of human agency in the National Natural Park and its effects at three levels: 1) local communities see their creative capacity and decision-making conditioned by power and control/pressures exerted by organized armed groups and the government; 2) the actions of organized armed groups control and limit ecotourism development; and 3) public regulations restrict these places' evolutionary pathways. Overall, actions derived from power relations exercised by the organized armed groups and the central government determined the evolutionary trajectory of the destination, reducing its adaptability to change, the empowerment of local communities, and its prospects.

The geography of the emergence of online peer-to-peer lending platforms in China: an evolutionary economic geography perspective

ABSTRACT This article discusses the geography of the emergence of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China. Moving beyond conventional approaches in financial geography, we propose a new analytical framework drawing on evolutionary economic geography. We find that China’s P2P industry is highly concentrated in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. These cities have possessed competent financial and Internet sectors before the emergence of P2P industry, and thus provide capabilities that P2P industry could build on. Moreover, experienced entrants, namely new firms founded by pre-existing firms and their employees from technologically related industries, play a crucial role in transferring capabilities from pre-existing financial and Internet capabilities into the P2P industry. In addition, the emergence of the P2P industry experienced three stages characterized by constraining environments with uncertainty coming from customers (2007–2012), enabling environments with inclusive regulations (2013–2015), and constraining environments with tight regulations (2016–2019).

Regional development and agency: Unfinished business

Agency and regional development has attracted growing attention. The origins of much thought in this area lie in evolutionary economic geography, sometimes with a nod in the direction of geographical political economy. In recent literature, there has been a stress on agency in general and local entrepreneurship in particular. Stress is laid on good governance, involving an appropriate mix of stakeholders, and more particularly the involvement of local leaders/entrepreneurs and their communities. However, in this article, I want to argue that, firstly, a focus on local entrepreneurship is too limiting; and secondly, following on from the first point, the concept of agency at a local level is at best undercooked.

Automotive regions in transition: Preparing for connected and automated vehicles

The advent of ‘connected and automated vehicles’ (C/AV) is posing substantial transformation challenges for traditional automotive regions across the world. This article seeks to examine both conceptually and empirically how automotive regions reconfigure their industrial and support structures to promote new path development in the C/AV field. Drawing on recent conceptual advances at the intersection of evolutionary economic geography and innovation system studies, we develop an analytical framework that casts light on how regional preconditions provide platforms for asset modification that underpin different routes of transformation. We distinguish between a reorientation route and an upgrading route. The framework is applied to a comparative analysis of industrial path development and system reconfiguration towards C/AV in two automotive regions, namely Ontario (Canada) and the Austrian automotive triangle.

Successful economic diversification in less developed regions: long-term trends in turbulent times

ABSTRACT The interplay between related and unrelated varieties and diversification processes as a driver of economic growth dominates contemporary discussions in the evolutionary economic geography (EEG) literature. This study provides further insights into these debates by exploring Poland, a nation of predominantly less developed regions, in the turbulent period between 1931 and 2000 which covers the Second World War and Communism. It is confirmed that in these specific settings only variety and diversification based on knowledge-intensive-related industries were conducive to growth. Successful diversification occurred more frequently around the capital city and transport corridors, indicating implications for EEG.

Barriers to sustainable development of municipalities with resource specialisation of the economy

Numerous studies demonstrate that the goals of economic growth frequently take precedence over addressing social problems and problems of environmental degradation. The manifestations of this imbalance differ from country to country depending on the stage of development of the productive forces, and institutional framework that ensures the creation and adoption of new practices and approaches to exploitation of natural resources. This problem is entirely inherent into the economies of resource regions. The paper aims to examine the impact of the extraction of raw materials demanded by the national economy on the problems and prospects of the long-term sustainable development of northern Russian localities. Methodologically, the research rests on the theory of inclusive development and evolutionary economic geography. The comparative analysis of the formation of local budgets and dynamics of the Okrug in Russia reveals that the degree of their financial sufficiency depends insignificantly on the scales and dynamics of raw material production. The legislation on assigning revenues to local budgets takes into account the specifics of the northern oiland gas-producing territories rather poorly. The financial capabilities of local communities do not allow handling existing ecological problems. The growth in hydrocarbon production in current institutional conditions does not guarantee sustainable long-term development for such territories. Addressing environmental issues requires instituting serious changes at federal and regional levels, including making the alterations to the articles of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. It is also crucially important to give financial incentives to introduce new technologies, provide research grants, lower labour taxes, and raise taxes on the use of natural resources.

Progress of research on economic complexity and regional economic development in the perspective of evolutionary economic geography

Progress of research on economic complexity and regional economic development in the perspective of evolutionary economic geography

Strong Links and Weak Links: How Do Unrelated Industries Survive in an Unfriendly Environment?

The evolutionary economic geography strand’s emphasis on related diversification as a path for economic development generally leads to greater territorial polarization: places already at the vanguard of production and with more advanced sectors tend to perform better, while less developed, often peripheral places remain stuck in low competitive equilibria. More recently, literature reveals cases where countries/regions may deviate and jump into new, unrelated industries, which have the potential to generate growth and convergence. Nonetheless, we still know little about what happens after jumps into unrelated industries and what factors facilitate the development of such industries. This issue is important, since it is often difficult for unrelated industries to take advantage of local competences and resources, or unfriendly environments. Our first contribution is thus to fill this gap by examining how unrelated industries could survive in an unfriendly environment. Another contribution is to bring the network properties of the industry space to the forefront, and show that unrelated and related industries have distinct preferences in terms of the number and strength of links. The hypothesis is that unrelated industries with a small of number of strong links tend to have better economic performance, while related industries with a large number of weak links are more likely to grow rapidly. We also contribute to the current literature methodologically by developing a new variety indicator that complements the density indicator. The econometric results confirm our main hypothesis.