Multi-scalar knowledge bases for new regional industrial path development: toward a typology

ABSTRACT

The topic of new regional industrial path development has recently received increasing attention in economic geography. The core idea is that actors in a specific region mobilize both intra-regional and extra-regional resources, especially knowledge, to develop a new regional industrial path. However, the extant literature has not yet fully explored how actors in different types of regions mobilize different forms of knowledge at various spatial scales to develop different types of paths. To fill this gap, we establish an analytical framework combining four key theoretical concepts, that is, new regional industrial path development, regional innovation systems, differentiated knowledge bases and multi-scalar knowledge sourcing. Drawing on this framework, we propose a typology distinguishing six scenarios. To inform future research, the paper outlines some strategies to operationalize this framework and illustrates these through a brief case study.

KEYWORDS:

• New regional industry path development
• regional innovation system
• differentiated knowledge base
• knowledge sourcing
• multi-scalar

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for giving useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Table 1, there are two scenarios on the intra-regional scale and two scenarios on the extra-regional scale. According to the types of knowledge bases on the extra-regional scale in Table 2 (either analytical knowledge bases or synthetic and symbolic knowledge bases), we further divide the two extra-regional scenarios in Table 1 into four scenarios in Table 2. In total, we develop six scenarios in Table 3, that is, two scenarios on the intra-regional scale, and four scenarios on the extra-regional scale.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council.