Jesús M Valdaliso, Patricia Suárez, Matías Mayor, Edurne Magro
{"title":"Lock-in, resilience and path development in old industrial regions: an agency-based explanation","authors":"Jesús M Valdaliso, Patricia Suárez, Matías Mayor, Edurne Magro","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf043","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines why some old industrial regions (OIRs) show strong lock-ins while others experience weaker ones. To do so, it compares the resilience of two OIRs in northern Spain — Asturias and the Basque Country — to major shocks and structural changes over the last fifty years, tracing their divergent development paths and advancing a tentative explanation for these differences. It employs a mixed-methods approach, combining dynamic shift-share analysis to evaluate regional resilience and the role of economic structure with qualitative analysis of how agency shapes regional trajectories, in addition to taking a historical perspective. The extreme cases of Asturias and the Basque Country offer contrasting examples of lock-in and path breaking (and renewal) in regional development. Asturias illustrates the strength of reproductive agency (place maintenance), while the Basque Country exhibits greater change agency (place leadership), engaging a broader range of actors in regional transformation. Ultimately, the paper advocates a holistic approach to regional development that combines both quantitative and qualitative analysis.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145492152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Milene Simone Tessarin, Ron Boschma, Deyu Li, Sergio Petralia
{"title":"Regional development traps in Europe: a study of occupational trajectories of regions","authors":"Milene Simone Tessarin, Ron Boschma, Deyu Li, Sergio Petralia","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf040","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents an evolutionary perspective on regional development traps that centres around the structural inability of regions to develop new and complex occupations. Using the European Labour Force Survey, we follow occupational trajectories of 237 European regions and provide evidence on which regions are trapped, what kinds of traps they have fallen into and which regions have managed to escape such traps. We find a clear-cut divide in Europe: Almost all non-trapped regions are in Northern and Western Europe, while trapped regions are found primarily in Southern and Eastern Europe. However, this geographical divide does not apply to all types of regional traps. Our results also show that regional development traps are persistent: Regions often remain in the same trap, but not always. Our study suggests a feasible pathway for low-complexity regions to overcome a development trap is by building capabilities in related occupations and then diversifying into complex occupations. Once complexity levels are high, regions tend not to lose their complexity.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145472918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The politics of path reproduction under vulnerable climate conditions: the case of skiing infrastructure expansion in the Austrian Alps","authors":"Valentina Ausserladscheider","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf036","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change poses risks to regional economies reliant on vulnerable infrastructure. While evolutionary economic geography highlights how established infrastructure sustains economic paths, less is known about path reproduction under adverse conditions. This is vital as climate change destabilises paths, sparking political conflicts over regional economic futures. Through a comparative case study of ski infrastructure expansion in differing climate conditions, this paper combines interviews and archival research to reveal how political conflicts about the region’s future shape path reproduction. It extends path dependence literature by emphasising the role of politics and future visions in maintaining path stability, offering key insights into regional development as climate change accelerates.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"97 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145311075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regional lock-ins and realities of firm-level diversification","authors":"Linda Stihl, Josephine V Rekers","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf034","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides micro-level evidence of how and why functional lock-ins persist, despite clear articulations of cognitive unlocking at firm, cluster and regional levels. We draw on literature on regional clusters and vertical value chains and consider how their dynamics condition incumbent firms’ efforts to diversify. Empirically, we employ an extended case study and trace diversification strategies of 12 incumbent supplier firms in the automotive industry in Olofström (Sweden) from 2000 to 2022, based on annual reports and 25 interviews. Findings show that regional cognitive unlocking during the 2008 crisis was not sufficient to decrease supplier firms’ dependence on the automotive industry, due to the persistence of functional lock-ins and vertical value chain dynamics.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145311073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John-Erik Bergkvist, Anna Essén, Karl Wennberg, Anna Krohwinkel
{"title":"How the organisation of mission arenas regulates attention away from regional problems and solutions: an attention-based view","authors":"John-Erik Bergkvist, Anna Essén, Karl Wennberg, Anna Krohwinkel","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf031","url":null,"abstract":"Mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) are promoting the formation of ‘mission arenas’ (MAs) where actors collectively try to address societal ‘wicked problems’. Yet, little is known about how attention — and subsequently time and effort — towards specific problems and solutions, and their geographical dimensions, unfolds within MAs. We conducted a multiple-case study of four MAs mandated and granted public funding to address self-articulated ‘missions’ in public health. We identify four distinct types of MA organisation with different attention-regulating properties that contribute to significant variation in MAs’ flexibility and breadth of attention. We propose a model explicating how all four MA organisations regulate attention in ways that impede future attention to regional problems and solutions — a finding that serves to problematise assumptions about attention in the MOIP literature.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145241854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entrepreneurial scalecraft: spatial–institutional processes and state scalar politics of eco-city-regional development","authors":"Yimeng Yang","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf029","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines how multi-scalar state actors are integrated in a regionalised ecological transition, and how this process, in turn, exacerbates scalar contradictions within state strategies. Drawing on a case study of the Wuhan City Circle in Hubei Province, China, it proposes a framework of entrepreneurial scalecraft to theorise the mission-oriented scalar experimentation and inherent crisis tendencies of state entrepreneurialism. This framework comprises two coexisting and intersecting spatial–institutional processes: (i) shareholding of multi-scalar states, referring to the strategic integration of state actors at different levels through equity (re-)structuring, and (ii) cross-scalar state assetisation, referring to the rise of state power at new scales of governance through selective asset grabbing. However, these scalar innovations also exacerbate internal tensions within multi-scalar states, ultimately giving rise to unintended consequences such as social protest.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145241975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Smart cities as “mission-oriented” innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems—insights from 20 years of experiments in Japan","authors":"Fumi Kitagawa","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf019","url":null,"abstract":"To better understand place-based impacts of mission-oriented innovation policy (MOIP), this article analyses the evolution of different types of smart city initiatives in urban contexts. The three smart city cases in Japan (that is, Kitakyushu, Hamamatsu and Aizuwakamatsu) show processes of recovery, revitalisation and transition where the local governments set the direction by defining MOIPs to fit with the current and future local needs and challenges. The national and subnational contexts of evolving MOIP discourses and smart city governance and implementation provide insights into the changing role of the local governments, affecting and being affected by the local innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems over time.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145127457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Governing green missions within regions: the case of the Basque Country","authors":"Edurne Magro, Ainhoa Arrona","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf030","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the place-based dimensions of mission-oriented innovation policies, specifically exploring the role of governance modes and institutional settings in defining and articulating missions. Using a structured-focused comparison of case studies, we analyse the definition process of a green mobility initiative by the regional government in the Basque Country, Spain, alongside a corresponding subregional mission aimed at promoting new mobility solutions. Our findings reveal that varying governance modes have led to distinct types of missions, highlighting the relevance of institutional path dependencies in policy translation processes and their impact on mission directionality. We argue that this diversity can provide complementarities rather than fragmentation across different levels of government, facilitating a multilevel approach that effectively mobilises regional resources and communities.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145089663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Analysing the prospects for place-based micro-missions: the role of challenge complexity and regional capacity","authors":"Dylan Henderson, Rick Delbridge","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf027","url":null,"abstract":"Mission-oriented innovation policies have come to the forefront of debates in both research and policymaking. While attention has focused on top-down, science, technology and innovation missions, research has increasingly begun to explore their spatial and societal dimensions. The concept of micro-missions has been advanced to highlight the potential for smaller-scale, place-based responses to societal challenges. This paper exf the circumstances in which micro-missions are formulated and implementedplores the role of capacity to mobilise and challenge complexity in such missions and highlights the diversity of models for their design. A conceptual framework is advanced and tested with the case of public food micro-missions in Malmö, and strategic implications are identified.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145017155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embedding city revival into state-driven innovation system: unravelling the state–local entrepreneurial toolkits for innovation","authors":"Ziming Li, Yiqing Zhao, Zhang Zhang","doi":"10.1093/cjres/rsaf025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaf025","url":null,"abstract":"What spatial interactions exist between state-driven innovation system building and regional rebalancing locally? Xi'an's resurgence via the development of the Xi'an–Xianyang New Area demonstrates how state's pursuit of the mission of national rejuvenation through indigenous innovation and regional rebalance intersects with state entrepreneurialism. Using our framework of dual entrepreneurialism, we investigate the evolutionary multi-scalar governance of Xi'an–Xianyang New Area from 2002 to the present. As a national project driven by subnational governments, it supports regional integration of urban development, industries and innovation. We find the instrumental role of an entrepreneurial province in mitigating local conflicts and the importance of entrepreneurial initiatives in assembling pro-innovation factors. Our findings enrich understanding of state–local entrepreneurial toolkits for innovation in mission-oriented economy.","PeriodicalId":47897,"journal":{"name":"Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145017156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}