Summary Networks and Regional Strategies

Contents
Regions and New Regionalism in the EU ............................................................................ 5
Regions: ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Some different types of regions ................................................................................................ 5
Regions are dynamic and they can change: .............................................................................. 5
Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics ......................................................................... 6
Framing of EU regional policies ................................................................................................. 6
Blue Banana............................................................................................................................... 6
Cross-Border Cooperation Programmes 2014-2020 ................................................................. 7
Territorial Cohesion – the basic narrative of the EU’s regional policies ..................... 7
Regionalisation in the EU .......................................................................................................... 7
Territorial Cohesion................................................................................................................... 8
Territory:................................................................................................................................ 8
Cohesion: ............................................................................................................................... 8
What are the biggest challenges/obstacles to European territorial cohesion and how do we
overcome them? ....................................................................................................................... 8
How to achieve territorial cohesion in Europe –theories and methods ................................... 8
Smart growth in a competitive and polycentric Europe ........................................................... 8
Inclusive, balanced development and fair access to services ................................................... 9
Overcoming regional disparities ............................................................................................... 9
Territorial diversity, geographical specificities and the importance of local development
conditions ................................................................................................................................ 10
Environmental dimension and sustainable development ...................................................... 10
Governance, coordination of policies and territorial impacts ................................................ 10
Metropolitan dimension as example ...................................................................................... 11
Choosing a perspective ........................................................................................................ 11
Def.: Social Network, business Network, Cluster .................................................................... 11
Tradition of cluster research? ................................................................................................. 11
How do practitioners work with the concept of a cluster? .................................................... 12
Cluster ..................................................................................................................................... 12
How is Porter (2000) defining the term cluster? ................................................................. 12
Clusters affect competition in three broad ways that both reflect and amplify the parts of
the diamond: ........................................................................................................................... 12
The generic value chain........................................................................................................... 13
 Example of a business network............................................................................................... 13
Use a SWOT for consolidating information............................................................................. 14
The Daimond model for explaining the competitivness of clusters ....................................... 14
Actors on the macro-, meso- and micro level: A network can involve (focus on) the macro-,
the meso-, and the micro-level ............................................................................................... 14
Methodological Considerations........................................................................................... 14
The Case: Rana Plaza Factory (2013)....................................................................................... 15
Key terminology in network theory ........................................................................................ 15
- Network configurations..................................................................................................... 16
-Interprete this depicted social relationship ........................................................................ 16
-SNA has different levels: dyadic, node and network level.................................................. 16
-Graphs: Directed and undirected ....................................................................................... 17
- Ties: strong/ weak, positive/ negative .............................................................................. 17
Regional Development – concepts and actors ................................................................ 17
Why regional development in Europe? .................................................................................. 17
The era of ‘reflexive capitalism ........................................................................................... 17
Reflexive capitalism ................................................................................................................. 17
A highly competitive economy ............................................................................................ 17
Understood in territorial terms............................................................................................... 18
The overall European answer: Boosting the knowledge-based economy .............................. 18
What is regional development in Europe?.............................................................................. 18
Please remember “the White and Gasser (2001) principles” ................................................. 19
Regional development strategies: ....................................................................................... 19
Development theories –the two directions ............................................................................ 19
Growth theories................................................................................................................... 19
Example growth theories ........................................................................................................ 20
Intregrated approaches........................................................................................................... 20
Tailormade initiatives .......................................................................................................... 20
Regional development from within rather than without ....................................................... 20
We need good governance to … ............................................................................................. 20
Levels of actors ........................................................................................................................ 21
Why talk about governance? .................................................................................................. 21
Top-down vs. bottom-up approaches ..................................................................................... 22
To sum up: Maintaining territorial competitiveness in the reflexive economy ...................... 22
Network-theoretical considerations .................................................................................. 22
Def.: Social Network, business Network, Cluster ............................................................. 22
 Social Network ...................................................................................................................... 23
SNA = Social Network Analysis .......................................................................................... 23
What makes the difference of quantitative vs. qualitative network analysis?............... 23
Qualitative Research on networks: ARA Model (Actors, Resourced, Activities)
Industrial network approach ................................................................................................ 23
Figures:................................................................................................................................... 24
Qualitative network theories tough up on the classical arguments from economic
sociology ................................................................................................................................ 24
Different kind of Metaphors ............................................................................................. 24
The Metaphor of Social Capital .......................................................................................... 24
Models of Range: Closure ................................................................................................... 24
Models of Range: Brokerage............................................................................................... 25
What means better connected? ......................................................................................... 25
Combining formal and qualitative Elements of NA: The Case: Offshore Service Net 25
Node, dyadic and network-level ......................................................................................... 25
Regional Studies (6-17) ......................................................................................................... 26
USING REGIONS AS GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION DEVICES ......................... 30
ARGUING WITH REGIONS.................................................................................................. 31
CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE USES OF REGIONS .................................................................... 31
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................... 32
A Quarter Century of the Europe of the Regions. Regional & Federal Studies (629-
635)............................................................................................................................................. 32
The Logic of Regional Integration (19-67) ........................................................................ 32
The resurgence of the 'region' and 'regional identity': theoretical perspectives and
empirical observations on regional dynamics in Europe. Review of international
studies (121-146) .................................................................................................................... 32
Schön, P. (2005) Territorial Cohesion in Europe? Planning Theory & Practice, 6:3,
(389-400) ................................................................................................................................... 33
Faludi, Andreas (2007) Territorial Cohesion Policy and the European Model of
Society, European Planning Studies Vol. 15, No. 4, (568-583)..................................... 33
Kim, P. H., Wennberg, K., & Croidieu, G. (2016). Untapped riches of meso-level
applications in multilevel entrepreneurship mechanisms. Academy of
Management Perspectives, 30(3), (273-291).................................................................... 34
Aarikka-Stenroos, L., & Ritala, P. (2017). Network management in the era of
ecosystems: Systematic review and management framework. Industrial Marketing
Management, 67, (23-36). ..................................................................................................... 34
Porter, M., E. 2000. Location, competition, and economic development: Local
clusters in a global economy. Economic development quarterly, 14(1), 15-34. ..... 35
Defining clusters of related industries. Journal of Economic Geography, 16(1), 1-
38 ................................................................................................................................................ 35
what is that? EU regional policies Pike, Rodrigues-Pose & Tomaney (2006) ‘What
kind of local and regional development and for whom?’ In: Local and Regional
Development, Routledge, pp. 23-57................................................................................... 35
otarauta, M. (2010) Regional development and regional networks: The role of
regional development officers in Finland. European Urban and Regional Studies,
17, 387-400 ............................................................................................................................... 36
Maskell, Peter (2004) Learning in the village economy of Denmark: the role of
institutions and policy in sustaining competitiveness. In Regional Innovation
Systems, Routledge, pp. 154-184 ....................................................................................... 36
Leick, B., & Gretzinger, S. (2020). Business networking in organisationally thin
regions: a case study on network brokers, SMEs and knowledge-sharing. Journal
of Small Business and Enterprise Development. Gretzinger, S., & Leick, B. (2017).
Brokerage-based value creation: the case of a Danish offshore business network.
IMP Journal, 11(3), 353-375.................................................................................................. 37
Gretzinger S., Bruun Ingstrup, M. (2022). Participation of micro-enterprises and
public organisations in rural development projects: Balancing between
collaboration and tensions. In: S. Leick, B.; Gretzinger, S., Makkonen, T. (Eds.).
The Rural Enterprise Economy. Routledge ...................................................................... 38
Boisen, M. (2015). Place Branding and Nonstandard Regionalization in Europe. In:
Zenker, S., Jacobsen, B. (eds) Inter-Regional Place Branding. Springer, Cham. ... 38
Donner, M., Horlings, L., Fort, F. et al. Place branding, embeddedness and
endogenous rural development: Four European cases. Place Brand Public Dipl 13,
273–292 (2017) ........................................................................................................................ 38
Giovanardi, M., Lucarelli, A., & Pasquinelli, C. (2013). Towards brand ecology: An
analytical semiotic framework for interpreting the emergence of place brands.
Marketing Theory, 13(3), 365–383 ...................................................................................... 39
Regions and New Regionalism in the EU
➔ Logics of regional theories of European Integration

Regions:
➔ Micro, Meso, Macro: Always a different scale than the nation state.

Some different types of regions:

➔ Geographical Regions (e.g., the Alps)
➔ Historical Regions (tradition/identity)
➔ Political Regions (administrative)
➔ Economic Regions (functional)

Regions are dynamic and they can change:

…. Because of indeterminacy boundaries and the differing systems to which regions
belong, regions must be seen as open systems rather than self-contained societies.
(Keating, New Regionalism, 1998, 11)

A region is a specific type of a territory at a lower structural level compared to the

state.

We can understand the region as a geographical area of similarity, extending across

time and space.

A region is defined as a more or less bounded area possessing some sort of unity or
organizing principle(s) that distinguish it from other regions. (D. Gregory: Region and
regional Geography, The Dictionary of Human Geography, pp. 687-690, Oxford 2000)

A region may have a historic resonance or provide a focus for the identity of its
inhabitants. It may represent a landscape, an architecture or a style of cooking. There is
often a cultural element, perhaps represented by a distinct language or dialect. Beyond
this, a region may sustain a distinct civil society, a range of social institutions. It can be
an economic unit, based either on a single type of production or an integrated
production system. It may be, and increasingly is, a unit of government and
administration. Finally, all these meanings may or may not coincide, to a greater or
lesser degree. (Michael Keating, Regions and Regionalism in Europe, Cheltenham
2004).

Regionalism: The active promotion of regional interests in political, economic, social

and cultural terms.

Regionalisation: The active engagement by state governments in processes of region-

building. This may include the transfer of political powers and functions to the regional
level, the granting of greater degrees of regional autonomy, and the acceptance of
greater regional influence on public policymaking for the whole country.

New regionalism (from late 1980s) (…) was impelled by a functional pressure
combined with new forms of political mobilization and a redefinition of social and
economic meaning of a territory, but this time the context was provided not just by the

state in the past, but also by the changing international market and the emerging
continental regime. (Keating, New Regionalism, 1998, 72)
Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics

The NUTS classification (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) is a

hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the EU and the UK for the
purpose of:

• The collection, development and harmonisation of European regional statistics

• Socio-economic analyses of the regions
- NUTS 1: major socio-economic regions
- NUTS 2: basic regions for the application of regional policies
- NUTS 3: small regions for specific diagnoses

Framing of EU regional policies

❖ Regions eligible for support from cohesion policy have been defined at NUTS 2
level
❖ The Cohesion report has so far mainly been prepared at NUTS 2 level

Blue Banana
Cross-Border Cooperation Programmes 2014-2020

Territorial Cohesion – the basic narrative of the EU’s regional policies

Regionalisation in the EU
Territorial Cohesion
Territory:
A basic recognition that economic and social development is spatially located as well as
directed and managed; developments are bound to place and space, and they can be
enhanced by ‘good governance’, e.g., administration/policymaking

Cohesion:
Balance and equity as measure of development (rather than just growth)

• The central narrative of regional policies in Europe

• A normative, guiding ideal for regional development in Europe
• A practical way to create concrete tools for social and economic cohesion in
Europe

Supporting” The European Model” of correlating growth, general welfare and

development:

“What binds Europeans together, even when they are deeply critical of some aspects
or other of its practical workings, is what it has become conventional to call – in
disjunctive but revealing contrast with ‘the American way of life’ – the ‘European model
of society’ (Judt, 2005).

What are the biggest challenges/obstacles to European territorial cohesion and how do
we overcome them?

How to achieve territorial cohesion in Europe –theories and methods

❖ Polycentrism
❖ Inclusive and balanced development
❖ Territorial diversity and localised
❖ capabilities
❖ Green, environmental and sustainable
❖ development goals
❖ Network and multi-level governance

Smart growth in a competitive and polycentric Europe

► Territorial cohesion will only be possible if Europe’s most economically viable
and powerful locations make full use of their growth potential, thereby serving
as engines for the development of larger areas surrounding each of them.
► A key issue here is European polycentric development, i.e., the development of
a number of interconnected European hubs or Major European Growth Areas
 (MEGAs) which mutually reinforce each other and lead to the strong growth
envisioned.
► Guided by: New Economic Geography (cluster theory for instance)

Inclusive, balanced development and fair access to services

► The key element here is strengthening the use of development potential outside
main growth poles and ensuring a minimum of welfare in all regions: Every
territory has its own distinct set of potentials for further development – its
territorial capital or comparative advantage.
► Supporting equal or fair development opportunities is a key issue, not least
expressed in the debate on fair access to infrastructure and services.
► Guided by theories about endogenous development potentials (networking and
cooperation among a broad specter of actors as driver of development)

Overcoming regional disparities

Territorial diversity, geographical specificities and the importance of local development
conditions
■ Place-based development, paying attention to local conditions – also moving
beyond the regional level – using tangible and intangible resources
■ Recognition that there are particular types of regions, and the principal
reference text is Art. 174 of the Treaty: “In order to promote its overall
harmonious development, the Union shall develop and pursue its actions
leading to the strengthening of its economic, social and territorial cohesion.”
■ Guided by theories about endogenous resources in local development and
theories about geographical ‘handicaps’ for regional development.

Environmental dimension and sustainable development

• We are witnessing stronger and stronger emphasis on environmental protection
and sustainability in the development policies and projects – intensifies even
more with the European Green Deal (2019)
• Guided by theories of sustainable development, energy supply and demand, the
green economy, climate change and the ecological footprint (UNEP, IPPC,
Global Footprint Network, World Bank, UN’s SDGs, etc.).

Governance, coordination of policies and territorial impacts

Key concerns:

■ Integration and maintenance of dialogue between sectors;

■ Better use of synergies between policies and better policy coordination;
■ Involvement of regions in policy processes and awareness of territorial impacts
■ Policy integration, sector coordination, and territorial impact assessments
guided by theories and practices of network governance and multilevel
governance.
Metropolitan dimension as example

Choosing a perspective
Def.: Social Network, business Network, Cluster
Social network: In line with Mitchell (1969) the term social network can be defined as a
connected crowd of social entity of a specific type (people, positions, organizations,….).

Business network: A particular kind of social network.

Cluster: A particular kind of network (or inter-connected (business-)networks)

Elements of networks: Actors, resources, activities, institutions (rules of the game)

Tradition of cluster research?

“Clusters have long been part of the economic landscape, with geographic
concentrations of trades and companies in particular industries dating back for
centuries. The intellectual antecedents of clusters date back at least to Marshall
(1890/1920), who included a fascinating chapter on the externalities of specialized
industrial locations in his Principles of Economics”.
 3 clusters

How do practitioners work with the concept of a cluster?

An Example from “Cluster Excellence DK”

The steering group for Cluster Excellence Denmark meets at least twice a year and
contributes to setting a direction for and prioritising Cluster Excellence Denmark’s
work. The steering group consists of representatives from the Danish Agency for
Higher Education and Science along with the Danish Business Authority.

Cluster
A cluster is a common place of related firms, organizations and/or institutions in a
particular field.

For:

➔ Implementing policies
➔ Involving relevant actors
➔ Facilitating processes
➔ Providing a common place for getting involved

How is Porter (2000) defining the term cluster?

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized
suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (e.g.,
universities, standards agencies, trade associations) particular field that compete but
also cooperate.

Clusters affect competition in three broad ways that both reflect and amplify the parts
of the diamond:
1. Increasing the current (static) productivity of constituent firms or industries,
2. Increasing the capacity of cluster participants for innovation and productivity
growth, and
3. Stimulating new business formation that supports innovation and expands the
cluster.

Many clusters’ advantages rest on external economies or spill overs across firms,
industries, and institutions of various sorts.
Thus, a cluster is a system of interconnected firms and institutions whose whole is more
than the sum of its parts.

The firm is embedded in value chains within its industry, region, cluster.

Porter´s is not
necessarily viewing a
cluster as a network. He
is accentuating more the
district and views firms
embedded in value
chains.

The generic value chain

Industrial Organizational economics / market based view: Structure-conduct

paradigm

Stage 1 Joe S. Bain 1954, 1968; Stage 1 Porter 1980, 1985

The actor (firm) judges the external environment (region, cluster, industry, market) and
identifies how imperfections may be exploited through an effective strategy.

Example of a business network

The Case: Offshore Service Net
 Describe:
• Actors • Resources • Activities

Actors:
• Powerful • Bridge-builders

Activities:
• Facilitating
• Mandating
• Ordering
• Collaborating
• ……

Use a SWOT for consolidating information

The Daimond model for explaining the competitivness of clusters

Actors on the macro-, meso- and micro level: A network can involve (focus on) the
macro-, the meso-, and the micro-level

Methodological Considerations
Exkursion: Serval textile clusters are situated in ”low-wagecountries”: China,
Bangladesh, Pakistan...

The Case: Rana Plaza Factory (2013)

➔ The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse was a structural failure that occurred
on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District.
➔ The search for the dead in injured people ended on 13 May 2013.
➔ 1,134 people died. ´
➔ Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the building alive.
➔ It is considered the deadliest non-deliberate structural failure accident in
modern human history and the deadliest garmentfactory disaster in history.
➔ In the building clothing factories, a bank, appartments and several shops were
contained.
➔ The shops and the bank on the lower floors were immediately closed after
cracks were discovered in the building.
➔ The building's owners ignored warnings to avoid using the building after cracks
had appeared the day before.
➔ Garment workers were ordered to return the following day and the building
collapsed during the morning rush-hour.

EU impact on districts and clusters inside and outside the EU

Key terminology in network theory

- Network configurations

- Network analysis: examples

-Interprete this depicted social relationship

-SNA has different levels: dyadic, node and network level

-Graphs: Directed and undirected

- Ties: strong/ weak, positive/ negative

Regional Development – concepts and actors

Why regional development in Europe?
The era of ‘reflexive capitalism
→… as globalisation and international economic integration have moved forward, older
conceptions of the broad structure of world economic geography as comprising
separate blocs (First, Second and Third Worlds), each with its own development
dynamics, appear to be giving way to another vision. This alternative perspective seeks
to build a common theoretical language about the development of regions and
countries in all parts of the world, as well as about the broad architecture of the
emerging world system of production and exchange … it recognises that territories are
arrayed at different points along a vast spectrum of development characteristics.

Reflexive capitalism
A highly competitive economy
– The complexity of economic transactions increase constantly – due to means of
transaction (IT) and forms of transaction (money and speculation)

– The risks involved in economic participation increase

– Both the possibilities and uncertainty of transaction increase

– A risk-economy in other words Reflexive capitalism therefore creates a need for new
development strategies – also in what used to be called ‘the developed world’.
Understood in territorial terms
The reflexive capitalist economy creates an economic geography with of new winners
and loosers.

Winners
• Metropolis’ or city-regions – e.g.,
London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Luxembourg
city (finance), Milan, Copenhagen,
Helsinki, Stockholm, München (biotech
and design)
• Intermediate industrial regions – e.g.,
Emilia-Romana (design), Herning/Ikast
(design), or Rhein-Ruhr (high-tech)
• Some tourism regions – e.g., Budapest,
Istria and Dalmatia (more outside Europe
than inside)
Loosers
• Formerly heavily industrialised regions
– e.g., North of England; parts of Rhein-
Ruhr
• Agricultural regions – concerns most of
rural Europe
• (Areas disconnected from the global
economy – e.g., the far north in Norway
and Sweden, yet, not so common in
Europe)

The overall European answer: Boosting the knowledge-based economy

→ This is an economy where the competitive edge of many firms has shifted from static
price competition towards dynamic improvement, favouring those who can create
knowledge faster than their competitors

→ Dynamic improvements, knowledge, speed = innovations

– Success depends on technological innovations

– Success depends on exchange of knowledge

– Success depends speed of innovation

→ The European trend is that the knowledge-base and human resources are our most
important export good – includes:

– Technological innovation and skills in high-, mid- and low-tech

– Educational, social and political tradition

– And not to forget: History – histories of production, or path-dependence

What is regional development in Europe?

Projects and strategies concerned with boosting regional growth or cohesion in the
knowledge based economy:

→ Could be larger, border crossing cooperation projects: Four

Motors; Danube cooperation project; Alpine development project; etc.

→ Could be smaller, more local initiatives: Branding of Sønderborg; helping homeless

people in Prague or boosting computer literacy in Vilnius

→ Could be business-oriented developments: Eco World Styria; Medicon Valley in the

Øresund region
→ Could be more socially oriented project: Attracting people to the regional labour
market; Integration projects like the Alpine development project; helping homeless
people in Prague

Who is regional development for - who should benefit; who are involved? Explain why

Please remember “the White and Gasser (2001) principles”

Regional development strategies:
→Require participation and social dialogue

→Are based on a territorial approach

→Entail mobilisation of local resources and competitive advantages

→Are locally owned and managed

Development theories –the two directions

Growth theories
→ Aims at explaining disparities in regional growth over time (and thus also show how
disparities diminish) = theory based on measurements of real-life developments

→ Covergence, divergence and evolutionary theory (often macro but can also be
meso) Integrated approaches

→ Takes broader dimensions of regional development than mere economic growth into
consideration

→ Involves macro- meso- and micro-developments

→ Has strategic aim

Example growth theories
• Focus on overall territorial cohesion (regional cohesion) in Europe (macro-level)
• Organ for the investigation of how the 2020 strategy is being implemented at
regional level
➔ Measurements
➔ Report
➔ Maps
• Uncovers regional potentials that are not yet used efficiently and can be
explored
• Monitors European potentials for competitiveness in the global context
• Mediates an awareness raising dialogue between regional actors in Europe

Intregrated approaches
o Localised capabilities
o Regional specialisation
o Endogenous resources
o Tacit knowledge and ubiquification
o Regional trajectories and path dependence

Tailormade initiatives
Recognizes territorial diversity, geographical specificities and the importance of local
development conditions

→ Place-based development, paying attention to local conditions – also moving beyond

the regional level – using tangible and intangible resources

→ Recognition that there are particular types of regions, and the principal reference
text is Art. 174 of the Treaty: “In order to promote its overall harmonious development,
the Union shall develop and pursue its actions leading to the strengthening of its
economic, social and territorial cohesion.”

Regional development from within rather than without

Aim at facilitating and stimulating territorial competiveness in a sustainable way (i.e.,
long-term) …in a specific place (territorial approach) … connected up with the global
market

❖ Here the emphasis is on knowledge spillovers in local synergies and networks

for regional development to take hold
❖ This makes it important for developers to have qualitative knowledge of the
specific local context of development
❖ In strategic terms: Move from imitative and low-road development strategies to
high-road and knowledge intensive strategies

We need good governance to …

• To coordinate, integrate and maintain dialogue between sectors involved in order to
better use of the synergies between sectors

• To involve the regions in development processes and create awareness of territorial

impacts of development
Levels of actors
Regional governance involves different and complex levels of actors

→ Municipalities

→ Regions (e.g., regional

government and
administration and regional
development agencies)

→ States

→ European Union

→ (Other) International
(trade) organisations

→ Civil Society actors

(NGOs, firms, industries,
media, etc.) has to be
invited in

Why talk about governance?

The shared characteristics of ‘governance’:

→ Interdependence between organizations. Governance is broader than government,

covering non-state actors.

→ Continuing interactions between network members,

caused by the need to exchange resources and
negotiate shared purposes.

→ Game-like interactions, rooted in trust and

regulated by rules of the game negotiated and agreed
by network participants.

→ A significant degree of autonomy from the state.

Networks are not accountable to the state; they are
self-organising. Although the state does not occupy a
privileged, sovereign position, it can indirectly and
imperfectly steer networks.
“Policy-making is less a matter of authoritative allocation than of negotiation and
adjustment among actors within complex networks and policy communities, many of
which are global in extend.” (Keating, PER, 28)

Top-down vs. bottom-up approaches

→ Top down approach in which decisions about the areas where intervention is
needed are taken by the national centre

→ Managed by the national central administration

→ Sectoral approach to development

→ Development of large industrial projects, that will foster other economic activity

→ Financial support, incentives and subsidies as the main factor of attraction of

economic activity

→ Promotion of development in all territories with the initiative often coming from below

→ Decentralised, vertical cooperation between different tiers of government and

horizontal cooperation between public and private bodies

→ Territorial approach to development (locality and milieu)

→ Use of the development potential of each area, in order to stimulate a progressive

adjustment of the local economic system to the changing economic environment

→ Provision of key conditions for the development of economic activity

“... Amin and Thrift (1995) maintain that it is not only desirable but also feasible to
develop locally based bottom-up and progressive economic-governance strategies,
building on the associative, networking and learning capacities of local economies and
sustained by a ‘thickening’ of local institutions.”

To sum up: Maintaining territorial competitiveness in the reflexive economy

”What really counts nowadays are two orders of factors and process: in an aggregate,
macroeconomic approach increasing returns link to cumulative development processes
and the agglomeration of activities; in a microeconomic and micro territorial approach,
the specific advantages strategically created by the single firms, territorial synergies
and cooperation capability enhanced by an imaginative and proactive public
administration, externalities provided by local and national governments and the
specificities historically built by a territorial culture.”

Network-theoretical considerations
Def.: Social Network, business Network, Cluster
• Social network: In line with Mitchell (1969) the term social network can be
defined as a connected crowd of social entity of a specific type (people,
positions, organizations, ….).
• Business network: A particular kind of social network.
• Cluster: A particular kind of network (or inter-connected (business-)networks)
• Elements of networks: Actors, resources, activities, institutions (rules of the
game)
Social Network
Easy explanation:

► Networks are sets of directly and/or indirectly connected actors, and the
relationships between them.
► Networks are used for accessing resources.
► Power is an important issue when investigating networks.

SNA = Social Network Analysis

Def.: Analysis

❖ Analysis: In the center of the analysis, it is not to analyse the opinions and
attitudes of people but relations due to communication, interaction, exchange
and/or power.
❖ In contrary to classical social analyses social network analysis is not focusing
just on characteristics of social entities but on relational data.

What makes the difference of quantitative vs. qualitative network analysis?

Qualitative Research on networks: ARA Model (Actors, Resourced, Activities)

Industrial network approach
Figures:

Qualitative network theories tough up on the classical arguments from

economic sociology
Social Capital is defined by its function. It is not a single entity but a variety of different
entities having two characteristics in common:

1. They all consist of some aspects of social structure, and

2. They facilitate certain actions of individuals who are within the structure (social
exchange within networks).

Like other forms of capital, social capital is productive, making possible the
achievement of certain ends that would not be attainable in its absence. Coleman
(1990).

Different kind of Metaphors

• Network Models of Contagion: Observable peer behaviour is taken as a signal of
proper behaviour.
• Network Models of Prominence: The prominence of an individual or group is
taken as a signal of the quality of the resources
• Network Models of Range: a) closure and b) brokerage

The Metaphor of Social Capital

Models of Range: Closure

■ Competitive advantage comes from managing risk.
■ Closed networks enhance communication and facilitate enforcement of
sanctions. (Coleman, 1990 and several sources)
Models of Range: Brokerage
• Competitive Advantage comes from information access and control.
• Networks that span structural holes provide broad and early access to, and
entrepreneurial control over information.
• Not just strong but also weak ties – due to her multiplicity –are of economic
relevance. (Ronald Burt, 2000; Mark Granovetter, 1983)

What means better connected?

Connections are grounded in the history of a market (or network).
Certain people have met frequently.
Certain people have sought out specific others.
Certain people have completed exchanges with one another.
Specific resource-dependence constellations lead to weak and or strong ties,
sometimes weak in one direction and strong in the other direction.
Specific norms do impact the strength of ties.

Combining formal and qualitative Elements of NA: The Case: Offshore Service
Net

Node, dyadic and network-level

Places and other actors in place branding
What is a place brand…
• “a network of associations in the consumers’ mind based on the visual, verbal,
and behavioral expression of a place, which is embodied through the aims,
communication, values, and the general culture of the place’s stakeholders and
the overall place design” (Zenker and Braun 2010, p. 3).
• Place as a brand from a brand ecology perspective - integrate functional and
representational dimensions through pragmatic analysis => places can be
treated as brands “even if formal institutionalized forms of branding efforts have
not been implemented” (p. 378) => “place brands exist even without place
branding” (Giovanardi et al. 2013, p. 379).
• “a brand is nothing more and nothing less than the good name of something
that’s on offer to the public” (Anholt and Hildreth 2004, p. 10).
• reputation of the places (Anholt 2005)
And place branding…
• The efforts of governments and industry groups to market the places and
sectors that they represent (Papadopoulos, 2004)
• “the process of place branding is to provide added value and specific meanings
to a place by consciously orchestrating and managing this brand” (Boisen,
Terlouw, and Gorp; 2011, p. 142).
• “the conscious process of creating, gaining, enhancing, and reshaping the
distinct presence of a place in the minds and hearts of people” (Boisen, 2015; p.
14).
• By asking “what a place wants to be” (García et al. 2013), place branding is
also a public management tool to develop places (Martin and Capelli 2017).
• of non-administrative places, branding can function as the means to integrate
the region

So a place branding is…

• Social and economics purposes include identity building, and competiveness
• Conservation of natural assets
• Conservation of cultural assets
• A tool for “enhancement of sustainable development” (García et al., 2013)
• Place attachment, satisfaction, loyalty, and enjoyment -> resident attraction,
resident retention, and investments in the place

Place promotion, place marketing and place branding

Diferrence between place promotion, place marketing and place branding

What place…
Administrative and all those regions non-administrative

Who is involved and how…

• larger cities and tourist destinations strategies similar to those of corporations,
i.e., a strong central
organization creating and communicating the core of the brand (Hankinson 2010a)
• in the past decade – recognition of place brands as socially constructed
meaning systems (Aitken and
Campelo 2011; Medway et al. 2015)
• => a paradigmatic shift in understanding place branding processes advocating a
stakeholder- and
process-oriented approach to brands (Kavaratzis 2012)
• Warnaby (2009) proposes the application of S-D logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004)
=> place brands are increasingly being understood as co-creative processes
among diverse stakeholders instead of an outcome of rather top-down
processes led by managerial objectives.
Who…

S-D logic: co-creation

• S-D logic: “value is cocreated by multiple actors, always including the
beneficiary” (FP6, Axiom 2) and “value is always uniquely and
phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary” (FP10, Axiom 4) (Vargo et
al.,
2020; Vargo & Lusch, 2016, p. 8)
• Resource integration; to integrate various place resources through the
involvement of different actors
• Co-creational nature of place branding (Brodie et al., 2017; Kavaratzis & Hatch,
2013) -concepts of service ecosystem and actor engagement (Vargo et al.,
2020)
 Actor engagement Service eco-system
Actor engagement
• Actor engagement: The voluntary contribution of resources to the object of
engagement, and this contribution occurs through interaction with other actors
or the engagement object (Alexander et al., 2018)
• Four broad types (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014; 2018):
(1) augmenting: e.g., posting pictures about the place and tagging the place
brand
(2) co-developing: e.g., constructive proposals for improvement of the brand
(3) influencing: i.e., positive communication about the brand
(4) mobilizing behaviour: i.e., recommending the place brand to others
• The engaging actors interact in “a spontaneously sensing and responding
spatial and temporal structure” (Lusch, Vargo, & Tanniru, 2010, p. 20) = a
service eco-system

Service ecosystems
• dynamic network (Li, Juric, & Brodie, 2017)
• Actors need to reciprocally see each other as a useful resource, and see the
brand as such to form the network (Taillard, Peters, Pels, & Mele, 2016)
• The context : actor-dependent and evolves continually (Chandler & Vargo,
2011; Li et al., 2017) -> varying (Koskela-Huotari & Vargo, 2016

Actor engagement and service ecosystems

• stakeholder constellations, institutional arrangements and resources available
(Vargo and Lusch, 2016) influence what kind of process will be taken in each
place
• In places where strong collaboration is the norm (Vargo and Lusch, 2016) and is
societally embedded (Donner et al., 2017), the actors know they can depend on
and benefit from each other (Fehrer et al., 2018) which allows for the
functioning of the rather bottom-up process.
• Further, there is a need for both a brand manager and willingness of the
stakeholders to collaborate (Charters and Spielmann, 2014).
• In the administrative places-> the rather top down involving fewer actors, only
certain parts of the community are seen as valuable resources to be integrated
in the PBP (Koskela-Huotari and Vargo)
Place branding processes

Interactions between different vertical places

Regional place branding examples

Regional place branding examples

Sonderborg

Regional Studies (6-17)

USING REGIONS AS GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION DEVICES
❖ In much popular usage and in many academic fields, the ‘region’ typically
conjures up the idea of a homogeneous block of space that has a persisting
distinctiveness due to its physical and cultural characteristics.
❖ The idea of the region typically goes against that of the nation-state as the
fundamental geographical unit of account that has been at the heart of the
humanities and social sciences as a whole since the late nineteenth century
(DUARA, 1995).
ARGUING WITH REGIONS
❖ Using mainly European examples, it could be said that five modes of usage of
regions tend to have dominated across the social sciences. The first consists of
macro-regions as units for the pursuit of total history. The locus classicus of this
approach is BRAUDEL’s La Méditerranée et Le Monde Mediterranean (1949).
❖ The claim is that over long periods of time regions emerge based on functional
linkages that then continue to distinguish one from the other. Such regions need
not be ocean basins such as the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean or the
Mediterranean. They can be units determined by their relative orientations
towards certain modes of production and exchange.
❖ He represented spatial variation between states in a series of schematic
diagrams transforming Europe into an abstract space by drawing on crucial
periods and processes in European socio-political history.
❖ Three periods/processes are seen as crucial.
➔ The first is the pattern of the peopling and vernacularisation of language
in the aftermath of the Roman Empire. This produces a geo-ethnic map
of Europe based on the south–north influence of the Romans and a west
to east physical geography/ethnic geography of the settlement of new
groups and their differentiation from one another.
➔ The second is the pattern of economic development and urbanization in
medieval/early modern Europe, distinguishing a south–north axis drawn
largely with reference to the impact of the Protestant Reformation and
the Catholic Counter-Reformation and an east–west axis with strong
seaward states to the west, a belt of city-states in the centre, and a set of
weak landward states to the east.
➔ The third is the way in which recent democratization has produced
different responses in different regions with smaller, unitary states in the
extreme west, larger, unitary states flanking them to the east, a belt of
federal and consociationalism states in the centre, and a set of
‘retrenched empires and successor authoritarian states yet further to the
east.
❖ The most important ties are those constituted in regions, which serve as
‘cultural and social space’ for ‘civic communication’. Local bourgeoisies in both
countries created renewed regional identities at precisely the same time that the
symbols they selected (honouring ancient heroes in statues, for example) were
made available for appropriation by nation-building elites. In these cases,
therefore, regional identities fed into the national ones and were thus frequently
lost from sight.

CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE USES OF REGIONS

• Down the years, seven disputes or controversies about regions have
episodically flared up both to challenge and to enliven the generally consensus
view of regions as homogeneous, self-evident blocks of terrestrial space.
• This article cannot hope to cover each of these in great detail. The purpose is to
give the flavour of what has been at stake in arguing with regions as a modus
operandi in social science research and show how the various disputes show up
in subsequent articles in this special issue.

that place is a tool of sociality

 ➔ by which he means that because people move and stop, settle, and
move again … places are shifting and changing, always becoming
through people’s engagements – material as well as discursive – in,
through, and with them. … In other words, place is not where social
relations simply take place, but an inherent ingredient of their modalities
of actualization.

CONCLUSION
■ Arguing with regions has been a major feature of social science of various
genres for many years. This article has briefly traced the lineage of some
perspectives that are avowedly ‘regionalist’.
■ This can involve adopting a certain kind of region as a case study for a specific
phenomenon or using regions as the basis for undertaking comparative
analysis. The use of regions as an alternative classificatory framework to states
has become well established, particularly at a time when the world is perhaps
less meaningfully thought of entirely in state-based terms.
■ This article has described with examples how regions have been used in a
number of distinctive ways in actual social science research: as macro-regions,
functional regions, geographical areas of similarity and sub-national regional
political identities. There is hardly a singular or overarching conception of region
inspiring all of these approaches. This reflects the fact that there have been
numerous philosophical and theoretical challenges to arguing with regions.

A Quarter Century of the Europe of the Regions. Regional & Federal

Studies (629-635)
Over a period of twenty-five years, we have witnessed the waxing and waning of the
idea of a 'Europe of the Regions'. These concluding remarks begin by examining the
factors that fuelled interest in, and enthusiasm for, this notion during the 1980s and
early 1990s. It is argued that whilst the EU has not turned into a Europe of the Regions,
spatial restructuring continues apace, as part of attempts to deepen and widen the
European polity. Territorial politics will continue to be a salient feature of European
politics for the next quarter of a century.

The Logic of Regional Integration (19-67)

Regional integration has emerged as one of the most important developments in recent
world politics. In this book Walter Mattli examines integration schemes in nineteenth-
and twentieth-century Europe, but also in Latin America, North America and Asia since
the 1950s. The book stresses the importance of market forces in determining the
outcome of integration, but also highlights the impact of institutional factors. The book
will provide students of political science, economics, and European studies with a new
framework for the study of international cooperation.

The resurgence of the 'region' and 'regional identity': theoretical

perspectives and empirical observations on regional dynamics in Europe.
Review of international studies (121-146)
► ‘New regionalism’, ‘region’, ‘city-region’, ‘cross-border region’, ‘border’ and
‘identity’ have become important catchphrases on the global geo-economic and
geopolitical scene. The resurgence of these terms has been part of the
transformation of both political economy and governance at supra-state, state
 and sub-state scales. Regions have been particularly significant in the EU where
both the making of the Union itself and the ‘Europe of regions’ are concrete
manifestations of the re-scaling of state spaces and the assignment of new
meanings to territory.
► Such re-scaling has also led to increased competition between regions; a
tendency that results from both the neo-liberalisation of the global economy and
from a regionalist response. Regional identity, an idea at least implicitly
indicating some cohesiveness or social integration in a region, has become a
major buzzword. It has been particularly identified in the EU’s cohesion policy as
an important element for regional development. In spite of their increasing
importance in social life and academic debates, regions, borders and identities
are often studied separately, but this paper aims at theorising and illustrating
their meanings in an integrated conceptual framework and uses the sub-state
regions in Europe, and particularly in Finland, as concrete examples.
► Regions are conceptualised here as processes that gain their boundaries,
symbolisms and institutions in the process of institutionalisation. Through this
process a region becomes established, gains its status in the broader regional
structure and may become a significant unit for regional identification or for a
purported regional identity. This process is based on a division of labour, which
accentuates the power of regional elites in the institutionalisation processes.

Schön, P. (2005) Territorial Cohesion in Europe? Planning Theory &

Practice, 6:3, (389-400)
► Economic and social cohesion is an expression of solidarity between the
Member States and regions of the European Union. The aim is balanced
development throughout the EU, reducing structural disparities between regions
and promoting equal opportunities for all. The new concept of territorial
cohesion appeared in official EU documents recently, however it is still in search
of a commonly accepted definition. The paper analyses this third dimension of
cohesion and presents the contemporary view upon territorial cohesion.

Faludi, Andreas (2007) Territorial Cohesion Policy and the European Model
of Society, European Planning Studies Vol. 15, No. 4, (568-583)
► This paper explores the roots of territorial cohesion thinking in the ‘European
model of society’. There is much to do about this model. Some regard it as a
liability for European competitiveness. The Barroso Commission wants to
safeguard the model by, albeit temporarily, giving priority to growth. There are
those – not only in Europe, but also on the other side of the Atlantic – arguing
that the European model forms a solid basis for a highly competitive economy.
In these debates, ‘European model’ stands for moderating the pursuit of
economic growth with concerns for social welfare and equity, sustainability and
good governance.
► Before elaborating, the paper summarises the discussion about territorial
cohesion and the struggle over current EU policy. Then the paper backtracks to
the ideas of Jacques Delors responsible for injecting the European model into
the integration discourse. What follows is an account of four reports in the wake
of the hapless Lisbon Strategy, all invoking the European model. The paper
 concludes with reflections on territorial cohesion policy and the European
model.

Kim, P. H., Wennberg, K., & Croidieu, G. (2016). Untapped riches of meso-
level applications in multilevel entrepreneurship mechanisms. Academy of
Management Perspectives, 30(3), (273-291)
Entrepreneurial action is embedded within a variety of complex social structures, not all
of which can be as easily defined or measured as macro-institutional or micro-individual
characteristics, but collectively hold rich insights into the actual causal mechanisms
influencing action. To address this problem, we call upon researchers to broaden their
levels of analysis and direct their focus to meso level structures. Although meso-level
social structures are widely studied independently, these intermediate levels are
seldom integrated into existing multi-level models. We argue that meso-level structures
offer untapped riches for enhancing multi-level entrepreneurial mechanisms and
discuss how social groups, associations, and other collectives operating at a meso-level
can play a more distinct integrative role in between the two ends of the institutional
spectrum. To provide practical guidance for pursuing such investigations, we adapt
Coleman’s Bathtub model to form a robust framework that integrates micro, meso, and
macro levels of analysis. Our framework helps alleviate the shortcomings produced by
an overdependence on either solely macro- or micro-level entrepreneurial mechanisms
and brings the hidden intermediate level into plain sight.

Aarikka-Stenroos, L., & Ritala, P. (2017). Network management in the era of

ecosystems: Systematic review and management framework. Industrial
Marketing Management, 67, (23-36).
► Business-to-business (B2B) and business network scholars have begun
adopting an “ecosystem” approach to describe the increasing interdependence
and co-evolution of contemporary business and innovation activities.
► Although the concept is useful in communicating these issues, the challenge is
the lack of overall understanding of the added value of the approach, its
particular theoretical logic, and its links to network management. This
systematic review analyses the usage of the ecosystem concept in B2B journals
and its implications for network management. Common themes are distilled, the
specific features of the ecosystem approach are examined, and four categories
of the ecosystem approach are identified: (a) competition and evolution; (b)
emergence and disruption; (c) stable business exchange; and (d) value co-
creation. We also examine shifts in management opportunities and challenges
related to these developments. Finally, we suggest a revised network
management framework, where we address the implications of utilizing an
ecosystem layer for the analysis, as well as using the ecosystem as a
perspective in the management of business and innovation networks. Overall,
this study contributes to the literature by providing a coherence-seeking,
systematic outlook on the increasingly useful, but still nascent and ambiguously
utilized ecosystem approach.
Porter, M., E. 2000. Location, competition, and economic development:
Local clusters in a global economy. Economic development quarterly,
14(1), 15-34.
• Economic geography during an era of global competition involves a paradox. It
is widely recognized that changes in technology and competition have
diminished many of the traditional roles of location. Yet clusters, or geographic
concentrations of interconnected companies, are a striking feature of virtually
every national, regional, state, and even metropolitan economy, especially in
more advanced nations.
• The prevalence of clusters reveals important insights about the microeconomics
of competition and the role of location in competitive advantage. Even as old
reasons for clustering have diminished in importance with globalization, new
influences of clusters on competition have taken on growing importance in an
increasingly complex, knowledge-based, and dynamic economy.
• Clusters represent a new way of thinking about national, state, and local
economies, and they necessitate new roles for companies, government, and
other institutions in enhancing competitiveness.

Defining clusters of related industries. Journal of Economic Geography,

16(1), 1-38
❖ Clusters are geographic concentrations of industries related by knowledge,
skills, inputs, demand and/or other linkages. There is an increasing need for
cluster-based data to support research, facilitate comparisons of clusters across
regions and support policymakers in defining regional strategies.
❖ This article develops a novel clustering algorithm that systematically generates
and assesses sets of cluster definitions (i.e., groups of closely related
industries). We implement the algorithm using 2009 data for U.S. industries (six-
digit NAICS), and propose a new set of benchmark cluster definitions that
incorporates measures of inter-industry linkages based on co-location patterns,
input–output links, and similarities in labor occupations.
❖ We also illustrate the algorithm’s ability to compare alternative sets of cluster
definitions by evaluating our new set against existing sets in the literature. We
find that our proposed set outperforms other methods in capturing a wide range
of inter-industry linkages, including the grouping of industries within the same
three-digit NAICS.

what is that? EU regional policies Pike, Rodrigues-Pose & Tomaney (2006)

‘What kind of local and regional development and for whom?’ In: Local and
Regional Development, Routledge, pp. 23-57
■ Regional economic divergence has become a threat to economic progress,
social cohesion and political stability in Europe. Market processes and policies
that are supposed to spread prosperity and opportunity are no longer
sufficiently effective. The evidence points to the existence of several different
economic clubs of regions in Europe, each with different development
challenges and opportunities.
■ Both mainstream and heterodox theories have gaps in their ability to explain the
existence of these different clubs and the weakness of the convergence
processes among them. Therefore, a different approach is required, one that
 would strengthen Europe’s strongest regions but would develop new
approaches to the weaker clubs. There is ample new theory and evidence to
support such an approach, which we have labelled “place-sensitive distributed
development policy” (PSDDP).

otarauta, M. (2010) Regional development and regional networks: The role

of regional development officers in Finland. European Urban and Regional
Studies, 17, 387-400
■ People responsible for regional development often understand fairly well the
need to construct regional advantage and build clusters. They also know the
importance of industry–university interaction, they have been taught to respect
innovation systems and to build them, but what they have not been given much
advice on is how to do it; how to create networks for these purposes, how to
direct and maintain them – how to lead complex policy networks?
■ Network management, or leadership in networks, in the context of regional
economic development is not a black box only for practitioners but for
academics, too. The research questions discussed here are: a) what do regional
development officers actually do in the early 21st century to gain influence in
policy networks, and hence in their efforts to promote regional development,
and b) related to the first question, what are the key process in their efforts to
mobilize policy networks and guide them.
■ The empirical research is based on data gathered through 41 interviews with
Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of regional development at
different levels of regional development activity.

Maskell, Peter (2004) Learning in the village economy of Denmark: the role
of institutions and policy in sustaining competitiveness. In Regional
Innovation Systems, Routledge, pp. 154-184
■ Denmark has been shown to be an innovative society which manages to
maintain high standards of living through network-based learning economy in
which inter-regional disparities are fairly limited.
■ Moreover, the relatively limited size of the country may even suggest that it
would be possible to address existing disparities through public policies, but a
‘spatial stickiness’ that tends to tie knowledge workers to large/growing labour
markets and an innovation model relying on networks and proximity,
geographical distances that may seem limited by European standards still seem
to hamper the access of non-core actors to knowledge resources in urban
areas, both in the manufacturing heartlands and rural peripheries that straddle
across existing administrative borders. In terms of public policies promoting
innovation and knowledge economy, current initiatives are concentrated in two
areas: national initiatives – often with explicit reference to the Lisbon agenda –
focusing on the conditions under which universities operate in order to increase
the immediate relevance of their activity for private economic actors and society
at large, and regional preparations for taking on a greater role in economic
development policy and support for clusters/networks in particular.
■ While both are relevant in view of the characteristics of the Danish innovation
system, the first group of initiatives would also seem to be driven by other
concerns – e.g. curbing the autonomy of especially the largest and oldest
 universities – and hence the effects of the new regulatory framework would
seem to be less certain from an innovation perspective.
■ The current Danish Objective 2 programme integrates innovation and
knowledge as an important aspect across policy activities, and evaluations of
the existing programme period would seem to suggest that this has not lead to a
marginalisation of knowledge-intensive projects and, indeed, that their effects
have been significant. In in terms of policy priorities this approach is in line with
both the perceived characteristics of the national innovation system and
regional development policies as they have been pursued to a greater or lesser
extent in regions across Denmark.
■ The main importance of the current programme would seem to be twofold: to
reinforce existing national priorities with particular focus on less well-off regions,
some of which are not only relative poor in terms of earned income per capita
but also with regard to knowledge institutions. The general policy
recommendations following from the preceding analysis suggest a two-prong
approach that increases basis research funding in line with Lisbon agenda while
at the same time attempts to support and improve the Danish innovation model
by Stretching the reach of innovative networking through regionally
differentiated policies relying on framework measures supported by other policy
instruments.

Leick, B., & Gretzinger, S. (2020). Business networking in organisationally

thin regions: a case study on network brokers, SMEs and knowledge-
sharing. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Gretzinger, S., & Leick, B. (2017). Brokerage-based value creation: the case
of a Danish offshore business network. IMP Journal, 11(3), 353-375
■ Purpose: Research on business networks in organisationally thin regions, which
are characterised by a low density and quality of business networks, is still in its
infancy, while the facilitation of business networks receives increasing interest.
The present paper combines both perspectives by investigating how different
types of network brokers facilitate business networking and knowledge-sharing
in organisationally thin regions.
■ Design/methodology/approach: Burt’s theory on brokers in social networks is
applied to knowledge-sharing in business networks for organisational thinness
as context. A qualitative case study represents the empirical basis that
describes network brokers from various domains in three different German case
regions, which are characterised by organisational thinness.
■ Findings: The network brokers studied facilitate different types of business
networks, and they use various levers to increase knowledge-sharing among
companies in business networks. Two broker types emerge, private business-
driven versus public policy-driven network brokers with distinct approaches to
the facilitation of business networking and knowledge-sharing and different
limitations due to organisational thinness.
■ Social implications: Companies, notably SMEs, in contexts characterised by low
networking density and quality may benefit from various types of network
brokers that foster business networking and instigate knowledge exchange.
Public policy should embed activities of private brokers in existing SME
 assistance programmes to increase the quantity and quality of business
networks.

Gretzinger S., Bruun Ingstrup, M. (2022). Participation of micro-enterprises

and public organisations in rural development projects: Balancing between
collaboration and tensions. In: S. Leick, B.; Gretzinger, S., Makkonen, T.
(Eds.). The Rural Enterprise Economy. Routledge
❖ Micro-enterprises located in rural regions are challenged in many ways because
of a lack of access to, for example, knowledge, networks, and capital. To
compensate for these shortcomings, they collaborate with other enterprises and
public organisations in development projects to build new relationships and
capabilities. However, such projects are accompanied by tensions due to
dissimilar goals, expectations, and institutional logics among the stakeholders.
❖ To date, the interaction between collaboration and tensions within rural
development projects is an underexplored topic, and to address this gap, we
investigate how such interactions in rural development projects fertilise or
hinder stakeholder participation. This is done by comparing two cases from a
rural development project and drawing on theory on stakeholder participation,
collaboration, and tensions.
❖ Based on this, we found that project managers and their ability to form
appreciative linkages, structures, and processual entities as well as to combine
dialogue and compromises to lower behavioural, structural, and psychological
tensions are key to increasing stakeholder participation. This finding shows that
project managers are vital balancing mechanisms in multi-stakeholder rural
development projects.

Boisen, M. (2015). Place Branding and Nonstandard Regionalization in

Europe. In: Zenker, S., Jacobsen, B. (eds) Inter-Regional Place Branding.
Springer, Cham.
Place branding might, could, and maybe even should play a central role in urban and
regional governance. The vantage point of this chapter is that every place is a brand
and that the processes of nonstandard regionalization that can be witnessed all over
Europe create new places and, thus, new place brands. When employing place
branding to these new types of regions, however, the traditional meta-geographies
cannot be ignored. In this chapter, the aim is to take a first step to bring some order
into the chaos. To this end, three categories of nonstandard regionalization are
proposed and compared concerning place branding.

Donner, M., Horlings, L., Fort, F. et al. Place branding, embeddedness and
endogenous rural development: Four European cases. Place Brand Public
Dipl 13, 273–292 (2017)
This article deals with place branding on the regional scale, in the rural context of food
and tourism networks in Europe. Place branding is linked to the concepts of
endogenous rural development, territory and embeddedness, by analysing how the
valorisation of specific rural assets takes shape. The overall objective is to provide more
understanding of how the branding of rural regions can contribute to endogenous rural
development. Four European regional rural cases on place branding are explored, two
from France, one from Ireland and one from Germany. Described are pre-conditions for
branding, brand management, cooperation forms and development outcomes. The
analysis is based on interviews as primary data and various secondary data. The cases
all involve multiple stakeholders, and integrate the capacities and needs of local people.
The findings show different levels of societal, structural and territorial embeddedness,
and that higher degrees of embeddedness contribute to a successful branding process.
The results indicate that place branding can support endogenous rural development
and benefits from the adoption of common values and joint reflections on brand
extensions, although there remains a need for more consistent impact measurement
methods.

Giovanardi, M., Lucarelli, A., & Pasquinelli, C. (2013). Towards brand

ecology: An analytical semiotic framework for interpreting the emergence
of place brands. Marketing Theory, 13(3), 365–383
Brand-management philosophy has recently expanded to include public and spatial
contexts producing a cacophony of logos, slogans and events all aimed at promoting
and marketing places. Yet, there is still a lack of understanding about how the brand-
management philosophy changes when moving into and across places and in which
way places change when affected by this way of thinking. Through a multi-site
ethnography of three Italian territories, this paper applies a semiotic framework (based
on the constructs of syntax, semantics and pragmatics) to interpret the interweaving of
procedures, mechanisms and symbols that underpin the emergence of place brands.
The enquiry reveals that each place brand is characterised by a specific level of
integration (‘symbiosis’) between functional and representational dimensions. By
recognising this interrelatedness through an ecological perspective that focuses on the
connections among all the constituents of a place, the concept of brand ecology is
offered to unpack the complexity of place brands and to reconsider the relationship
between place branding and place marketing approaches.