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The rise of the concept of regional competitiveness has led to many emerging frameworks and applications employed across various contexts. There is a growing consensus that regions have become the principal spatial units that compete to attract investment and generate knowledge flows, which gives rise to agglomerations or clusters of industrial and sectoral activity. The cluster concept continues to be a field of contested theoretical debate, particularly for arguments concerning the extent to which places actually compete for resources and markets. This debate and the relevance of regional competitiveness extend outside the realms of academia, to policy deliberation at all levels of government.
The current Handbook builds on the previous works of the editors (Huggins et al., 2014) and others (Martin et al., 2006) on regional competitiveness. This handbook aims to take account of regional competitiveness and other complementary concepts and provide a thoughtful discussion of contemporary theories, perspectives and empirical explanations shedding light on the sources and determinants of uneven development across regions. Drawing on an international field of leading scholars, the book begins with an introduction of the theoretical foundations of regional competitiveness. Subsequently, in six parts, more in-depth discussions of the key competitiveness factors, the emergence of related concepts, the empirical applications and the policy context are provided.
Chapter 1 offers a useful introduction and overview of key concepts within the context of established theories of endogenous growth and development and contemporary theoretical...