【摘要】The regional diversification literature claims that regions diversify in new activities related to their existing activities from which new activities draw on and combine local capabilities. The paper offers a critical assessment and identifies a number of crucial issues for future research. It calls for (1) a disentanglement of the various types of capabilities that make regions diversify; (2) the inclusion of more geographical wisdom in the study of regional diversification, like a focus on the effects of territory specific contexts, such as institutions; (3) a thorough investigation in the conditioning factors of related and unrelated diversification in regions; and (4) a micro-perspective on regional diversification that assesses the role of economic and institutional agents in a multi-scalar perspective.

【关键词】regional diversification; related diversification; unrelated diversification; institutional entrepreneurship; evolutionary economic geography; institutional change

【文献来源】Ron Boschma. Relatedness as driver of regional diversification: a research agenda. Regional Studies. 2016,12(51):351-364