IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ipt/iptwpa/jrc88242.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional Branching and Smart Specialisation Policy

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This note studies the mechanisms through which regional economies diversify over time and formulates suggestions on how policy can influence such process. In particular, two closely related concepts will be defined, that is, technological relatedness and related variety. Regional diversification is a crucial process in order to develop new growth paths. It is understood as an emerging process through which new activities develop out of existing ones, but the scope and outcome of this process are fundamentally affected by technological and cognitive constraints. We discuss how technological relatedness may provide an input for effective policy making. In this respect, public policy should avoid picking winners that do not fit into the regional actual and potential industrial space and should prevent supporting declining industries that occupy a peripheral position in the industry space of a region. More in particular, we direct attention to various mechanisms through which new industries may be stimulated to connect to technologically related industries at the regional level. We also introduce the process of entrepreneurial discovery, in which entrepreneurs generate the key information guiding the selection of the domains of future regional specialization, and discuss its relationship with policy schemes based on related diversification.

Suggested Citation

  • Ron Boschma & Carlo Gianelle, 2014. "Regional Branching and Smart Specialisation Policy," JRC Research Reports JRC88242, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
  • Handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc88242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC88242
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank van Oort & Stefan de Geus & Teodora Dogaru, 2015. "Related Variety and Regional Economic Growth in a Cross-Section of European Urban Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1110-1127, June.
    2. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    3. Ron A. Boschma & Rik Wenting, 2007. "The spatial evolution of the British automobile industry: Does location matter?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 213-238, April.
    4. Frank Neffke & Martin Svensson Henning, 2008. "Revealed Relatedness: Mapping Industry Space," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0819, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2008.
    5. Guido Buenstorf & Steven Klepper, 2009. "Heritage and Agglomeration: The Akron Tyre Cluster Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 705-733, April.
    6. Boschma, Ron & Heimeriks, Gaston & Balland, Pierre-Alexandre, 2014. "Scientific knowledge dynamics and relatedness in biotech cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 107-114.
    7. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), 2010. "The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12864.
    8. Autor, David H. (ed.), 2009. "Studies of Labor Market Intermediation," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226032887, October.
    9. Fiorenza Belussi & Silvia Rita Sedita, 2008. "Life Cycle vs. Multiple Path Dependency in Industrial Districts," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 505-528, November.
    10. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    11. Carlsson, B & Stankiewicz, R, 1991. "On the Nature, Function and Composition of Technological Systems," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 93-118, April.
    12. Alessandra Colombelli & Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro, 2012. "The emergence of new technology-based sectors at the regional level: a proximity-based analysis of nanotechnology," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1211, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jun 2012.
    13. Ron Boschma & Simona Iammarino, 2009. "Related Variety, Trade Linkages, and Regional Growth in Italy," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(3), pages 289-311, July.
    14. Rodrik, Dani, 2004. "Industrial Policy for the Twenty-First Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 4767, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Audretsch, David B & Feldman, Maryann P, 1996. "R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 630-640, June.
    16. Chong Ju Choi & Carla C. J. M. Millar & Caroline Y. L. Wong, 2005. "Knowledge and Cities," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Knowledge Entanglements, chapter 0, pages 39-51, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2006. "Path dependence and regional economic evolution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 395-437, August.
    18. M. Hartog & R. Boschma & M. Sotarauta, 2012. "The Impact of Related Variety on Regional Employment Growth in Finland 1993--2006: High-Tech versus Medium/Low-Tech," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 459-476, August.
    19. Pierre-Alexandre Balland, 2012. "Proximity and the Evolution of Collaboration Networks: Evidence from Research and Development Projects within the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Industry," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(6), pages 741-756, September.
    20. Ron Boschma & Rikard Eriksson & Urban Lindgren, 2009. "How does labour mobility affect the performance of plants? The importance of relatedness and geographical proximity," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 169-190, March.
    21. Carlo Gianelle, 2011. "Temporary employment agencies make the world smaller:Evidence from labour mobility networks," Department of Economics University of Siena 618, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    22. Elisa Giuliani, 2007. "The selective nature of knowledge networks in clusters: evidence from the wine industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 139-168, March.
    23. Frank Neffke & Martin Svensson Henning, 2009. "Skill-relatedness and firm diversification," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-06, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography, revised Oct 2010.
    24. Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2014. "When local interaction does not suffice: sources of firm innovation in urban Norway," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 5, pages 195-222, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    25. Matthias Brachert & Asier Alexander Kubis & Mirko Titze, 2013. "Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Functions: A spatial panel approach," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1301, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2013.
    26. Ron Boschma, 2014. "Constructing Regional Advantage and Smart Specialisation: Comparison of Two European Policy Concepts," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 51-68.
    27. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    28. Hausmann, Ricardo & Rodrik, Dani, 2003. "Economic development as self-discovery," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 603-633, December.
    29. Otto Raspe & Frank Van Oort, 2006. "The Knowledge Economy and Urban Economic Growth," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(9), pages 1209-1234, May.
    30. Pablo D'Este & Frederick Guy & Simona Iammarino, 2013. "Shaping the formation of university--industry research collaborations: what type of proximity does really matter?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 537-558, July.
    31. Stephen Quilley, 2000. "Manchester First: From Municipal Socialism to the Entrepreneurial City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 601-615, September.
    32. Bjørn Asheim & Ron Boschma & Philip Cooke, 2011. "Constructing Regional Advantage: Platform Policies Based on Related Variety and Differentiated Knowledge Bases," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 893-904.
    33. Andre Torre & Alain Rallet, 2005. "Proximity and Localization," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 47-59.
    34. Philip Cooke, 2010. "Transversality and Transition: Branching to New Regional Path Dependence," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1010, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2010.
    35. Vesa Harmaakorpi & Tomi Tura & Helinä Melkas, 2011. "Regional Innovation Platforms," Chapters, in: Philip Cooke & Bjørn Asheim & Ron Boschma & Ron Martin & Dafna Schwartz & Franz Tödtling (ed.), Handbook of Regional Innovation and Growth, chapter 41, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    36. Koen Frenken & Frank Van Oort & Thijs Verburg, 2007. "Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 685-697.
    37. Tom Broekel & Ron Boschma, 2012. "Knowledge networks in the Dutch aviation industry: the proximity paradox," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 409-433, March.
    38. David H. Autor, 2009. "Studies of Labor Market Intermediation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number auto07-1, January.
    39. Jan G. Lambooy & Ron A. Boschma, 2001. "Evolutionary economics and regional policy," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 35(1), pages 113-131.
    40. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2012. "Related variety and regional growth in Spain," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 241-256, June.
    41. Colombelli, Alessandra & Krafft, Jackie & Quatraro, Francesco, 2014. "The emergence of new technology-based sectors in European regions: A proximity-based analysis of nanotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1681-1696.
    42. Pier P. Saviotti, 1996. "Technological Evolution, Variety and the Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 727.
    43. Constance E. Helfat & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2002. "The birth of capabilities: market entry and the importance of pre-history," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 725-760, August.
    44. Steven Klepper, 2007. "Disagreements, Spinoffs, and the Evolution of Detroit as the Capital of the U.S. Automobile Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 616-631, April.
    45. Philip Cooke & Bjørn Asheim & Ron Boschma & Ron Martin & Dafna Schwartz & Franz Tödtling (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Regional Innovation and Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13482.
    46. Bram Timmermans & Ron Boschma, 2014. "The effect of intra- and inter-regional labour mobility on plant performance in Denmark: the significance of related labour inflows," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 289-311.
    47. Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "Reinventing Boston: 1630--2003," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 119-153, April.
    48. Robert Hassink, 2005. "How to unlock regional economies from path dependency? From learning region to learning cluster," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 521-535, June.
    49. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    50. Anne Tanner, 2011. "The place of new industries: the case of fuel cell technology and its technological relatedness to regional knowledge bases," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1113, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2011.
    51. Paul Bishop & Peter Gripaios, 2010. "Spatial Externalities, Relatedness and Sector Employment Growth in Great Britain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 443-454.
    52. Steven Klepper & Kenneth L. Simons, 2000. "Dominance by birthright: entry of prior radio producers and competitive ramifications in the U.S. television receiver industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 997-1016, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung - welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert des Wachstum?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 144, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    2. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissensintensive Unternehmensdienste, Wissens-Spillovers und regionales Wachstum. Teilprojekt 1: Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung – Welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert das Wach," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58342, February.
    3. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    4. Elekes, Zoltán, 2016. "A regionális növekedés új tényezői az evolúciós gazdaságföldrajzi kutatásokban. A változatosság és a technológiai közelség [The new factors of regional growth in research into evolutionary economic," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 307-329.
    5. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2015. "Evolutionary Economic Geography," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1518, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2015.
    6. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Pierre-Alexandre Balland & David Rigby & Ron Boschma, 2015. "The technological resilience of US cities," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(2), pages 167-184.
    8. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2011. "The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 295-307, March.
    9. Ron Boschma, 2014. "Constructing Regional Advantage and Smart Specialisation: Comparison of Two European Policy Concepts," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 51-68.
    10. Jürgen Essletzbichler, 2013. "Relatedness, industrial branching and technological cohesion in U.S. metropolitan areas," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1307, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2013.
    11. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    12. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    13. Canfei He & Yan Yan & David Rigby, 2015. "Regional Industrial Evolution in China: Path Dependence or Path Creation?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1520, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2015.
    14. Timmermans, Bram & Fitjar, Rune Dahl, 2015. "Skill Relatedness in Norway by Bram Timmermans and Rune Dahl Fitjar," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2015/20, University of Stavanger.
    15. Ron Boschma, 2018. "The geographical dimension of structural change," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1839, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2018.
    16. Luciana Lazzeretti & Niccolò Innocenti & Francesco Capone, 2015. "Does Related variety matter for Creative Industries?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1510, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2015.
    17. Ji?í Blažek & David Marek & Viktor Kv?to?, 2016. "The Variety of Related Variety Studies: Opening the Black Box of Technological Relatedness via Analysis of Inter-firm R&D Cooperative Projects," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1611, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2016.
    18. Jeroen Content & Koen Frenken, 2016. "Related variety and economic development: a literature review," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 2097-2112, December.
    19. Luciana Lazzeretti & Niccolò Innocenti & Francesco Capone, 2017. "The impact of related variety on the creative employment growth," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(3), pages 491-512, May.
    20. Hervas Oliver,Jose Luis & Gonzalez,Gregorio & Caja,Pedro, 2014. "Clusters and industrial districts: where is the literature going? Identifying emerging sub-fields of research," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201409, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    European cohesion policy; Structural Funds; smart specialisation; related variety; regional branching; entrepreneurial discovery process;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc88242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publication Officer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipjrces.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.