
Ron BoschmaUtrecht University | UU · Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning
Ron Boschma
PhD Economics, Honorary Doctorate Natural Sciences
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (263)
This paper combines insights from the literatures on Global Value Chains (GVC), Economic Complexity and Evolutionary Economic Geography to assess the role of GVC participation and regional capabilities in fostering economic complexity in EU NUTS-2 regions. Our results suggest there is no such thing as a common path towards economic complexity acros...
The spatial fragmentation of production processes has fostered the rise of global value chains (GVCs) and functional specialisation in trade of countries and regions. Regions differ in the production functions they develop in GVCs: while some regions concentrate on headquarters and R&D facilities, other regions have become locations of factories an...
This paper adopts a relatedness-complexity framework to assess the likelihood of functional upgrading and downgrading in global value chains in EU regions in the period 2000-2010. We use relatedness and economic complexity measures based on value added content of gross exports and labour structures at the regional level. We find that relatedness be...
This book is An Introduction to Evcolutionary Economics
This paper proposes an evolutionary take on regional development traps. Our definition of regional traps centers around the structural inability of regions to develop new complex activities. We distinguish between several different traps. Using industry data, we follow European regions over time and provide evidence on which regions in the EU are t...
There is an ongoing dialogue that explores how the Global Production Network and Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) literatures can make promising crossovers. This paper aims to contribute to this debate by outlining a theoretical-analytical approach to regional studies on Global Value Chains (GVCs). Building on the EEG literature on relatedness...
Over recent years, the world has witnessed unexpected challenges - including the COVID-19 pandemic and significant geopolitical tensions. These events have had substantial impacts on both Global Value Chains and Regional Innovation Systems – two complementary analytical scopes that compose the complex geography of innovation. This has led governmen...
The paper contributes to the growing literature on the relationship between relatedness, complexity and regional diversification. It explores regional diversification in an emerging economy, focusing on diversification opportunities of regions with distinct levels of local capabilities. We investigate the importance of relatedness and economic comp...
Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities but little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification. This article shows how crises impact the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropol...
Technological capabilities vary substantially across European regions. Combining these diverse sets of capabilities is crucial to develop the technologies necessary to master the green and digital transition. However, collaboration between regions is sparse today. To increase inter-regional cooperation, linkages that spur the development of green a...
This article proposes a framework to study how the existing knowledge portfolio of regional economies affects the emergence and occurrence of breakthrough technologies. The study discusses the relevance of cognitive distance between the technology of a breakthrough invention and the existing technological base in their geographic vicinity. Theoreti...
The purpose of this study is to investigate how a regional knowledge base of information and communication technologies (ICTs) influences the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in European regions. Relying on patent data and studying the knowledge production of AI technologies in 233 European regions in the period from 1994 to 2...
Non-local linkages are considered to be crucial for innovation in regions because they provide access to new knowledge and ideas. This helps places to avoid or overcome lock-in situations. The cluster literature has focused on gatekeepers that may diffuse non-local knowledge to cluster firms. In the global city literature, this gatekeeping role is...
Smart Specialisation was conceived as a ‘bottom-up’ framework to identify new growth paths connected to knowledge cores within regions. Although operationalization of Smart Specialisation has proven difficult, recent mappings of technologies in terms of technological relatedness and complexity suggest a useful cost–benefit framework. We extend thes...
Over the last three decades cross-border innovation has profoundly changed. The global fragmentation of global value chains, increased global connectedness, and pervasive digitalization have contributed to shaping innovation processes that increasingly span country borders. This process of change has involved a wide array of actors (players) in a v...
As regions evolve, their economies become more complex, and they tend to diversify into
related activities. Although there is a bright side to this diversification process in terms of
economic development, there may also be a dark side to it, as it possibly contributes to regional inequalities. The paper uses data on industries and patents to analy...
Many studies have shed light on the positive side of relatedness, but little attention has yet been devoted to possible downsides of relatedness for firm performance in regions. We found in a case study of the oil-dependent Stavanger region in Norway that plants in industries that are skill-related to the dominant oil and gas industry showed lower...
The research agendas of Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) and Global Value Chains (GVC) have developed more or less independently from each other, with little interaction so far. This is unfortunate because both streams of literature have a lot to offer to each other. This paper explores how, looking at four strands in the GVC literature. Promi...
The aim of the paper is to shed light on the role played by regional knowledge bases in Industry 3.0 in fostering new technologies in Industry 4.0 in European regions (NUTS 3) over the period 1991–2015. We find that 4.0 technologies appear to be quite related to 3.0 technologies, with some heterogeneity among different technology fields. The paper...
A key objective of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) is to stimulate related diversification in European regions, rather than unrelated diversification. This chapter will outline the pros and cons of S3 with a prime focus on either related or unrelated diversification. We argue it depends on the specific regional situation which type of S3 to pu...
Do scientific capabilities in regions translate into technological leadership? This is one of the most pressing questions in academic and policy circles. This paper analyzes the matching of scientific and technological capabilities of 285 European regions. We build on patent and publication records to identify regions that lie both at the scientifi...
Economic diversification—the process by which locations enter new economic activities—is known to be a combination of related and unrelated diversification. Related diversification is—on average—more frequent, but unrelated diversification is nevertheless considered important to avoid economic lock-in. Here, we study the frequency and timing of unr...
This paper aims to identify the future Industry 4.0 technology (I4T) centres of knowledge production in Europe. We expect I4Ts to thrive in regions where they can draw on local capabilities in I4T-related technologies. We use patent data to identify I4T-related technologies and find that I4Ts are positioned in the periphery of the knowledge space....
Loss of specific human capital is often identified as a mechanism through which displaced workers might experience permanent drops in earnings after job loss. Research has shown that displaced workers who migrate out of their region of origin have lower earnings than those who do not. This paper extends the discussion on returns to migration by acc...
This chapter explores patterns of structural change from a geographical perspective. It summarizes recent insights on the geography of structural change, and in particular on regional diversification. It shows how local capabilities and institutions impact on structural change, and why the capacity of regions to diversify differs substantially. Thi...
This edited volume provides a comprehensive overview of the major debates on the role of structural change in economic development. The book begins by recounting the intellectual history of the notion of structural change, providing a critical overview of the arguments that link structural change to growth and development, before outlining the main...
Regional capabilities are regarded a pillar of Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3). There is yet little focus in S3 policy on the role of interregional linkages. This study on 292 NUTS-2 regions in Europe finds that interregional linkages have a positive effect on the probability of regions to diversify, especially in peripheral regions. What matter...
Jobs disappear, jobs are created, work changes, in a geographically uneven way. Some places cope better with adverse events that threaten its labour force into unemployment. Some places end up having better jobs. Why? Labour dynamics are particular of each place, influenced by a myriad of local factors, such as the type of jobs in each city. But jo...
This special issue will focus on the interaction of the “local” and the “global” in the context of a rapidly changing international environment as described above. In particular, we call for theoretical and empirical papers that deal with the changing nature of international production and local adaptation. We welcome papers addressing the followin...
This article investigates the role of social capital for the entry and exit of industries in Italian provinces between 2004 and 2010. Results show that bridging social capital positively contributes to the net entry of new industries, especially when they are unrelated to existing specializations in a region, but it loses its impact on regional div...
In the era of globalization, policy makers in both developing and developed countries have sought to expand their export destinations, with the expectation that export market diversification can boost export upgrading and economic development. Although extant literature has confirmed that exporters search for new markets in two distinct ways: direc...
Relatedness has become a key concept for studying the diversification of firms, regions and countries. However, studies tend to treat relatedness as being time‐invariant or, alternatively, consider its evolution as exogenously given. This study argues that relatedness is inherently dynamic and endogenous to technological and economic developments....
New green activities in regions tend to build on regional capabilities. This paper makes a first attempt to test the impact of political support for environmental policy at the national and regional scales, besides regional capabilities, on the ability of 95 regions in seven European countries to diversify into new green technologies during the per...
In this paper we investigate whether the novelty content of innovations introduced by Norwegian manufacturing firms reflect the composition of work-life experiences collected by employees. Distinguishing between ‘related’ (RV) and ‘unrelated’ (URV) variety and using employer-employee registers merged with Community Innovation Survey data to observe...
A key objective of the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation is the creation of cross-country research networks. We make use of Social Network tools to describe the evolution of the EU research network across countries on the basis of unique data covering collaborative projects launched during the first four years of implementation of...
In this paper we investigate whether the novelty content of innovations introduced by Norwegian manufacturing firms reflect the composition of work-life experiences collected by employees. Distinguishing between 'related' (RV) and 'unrelated' (URV) variety and using employer-employee registers merged with Community Innovation Survey data to observe...
This article investigates the spatial evolution of the Italian motorcycle industry during the period 1893–1993. We find strong support for the heritage theory of Klepper, even after controlling for agglomeration economies. However, we find also a positive effect of being located in the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia Romagna on the survival rate of...
In this article we develop and test the hypothesis that social capital, defined as a regional characteristic, discourages entrepreneurship in a new and contested industry. The argument follows the logic that high levels of social capital reinforce conformity in values and ideas, and inhibit deviant entrepreneurial activity. Once an industry becomes...
This paper investigates the role of different types of firms in related and unrelated diversification in regions, in particular the extent to which foreign-owned firms induce structural change in the manufacturing capability base of 67 Hungarian regions between 2000 and 2009. Doing so, it connects more tightly the literatures of evolutionary econom...
There is ample evidence of regions diversifying in new occupations that are related to pre-existing activities in the region. However, it is still poorly understood through which mechanisms related diversification operates. To unpack relatedness, we distinguish between three mechanisms: complementarity (interdependent tasks), similarity (sharing si...
Labour mobility is often considered a crucial factor for regional development. However, labour mobility is not good per se for local firms. There is increasing evidence that labour recruited from skill-related industries has a positive effect on plant performance, in contrast to intra-industry labour recruits. However, little is known about which t...
Social capital plays an important role in firm competitiveness and firms located in peripheral regions may benefit from different types of social capital such as that gained from contacts to other business partners (production-related) or that gained from contacts with external actors like policymakers and politicians (environment-related). We inve...
In this paper, we investigate whether the composition of experience-based knowledge accumulated by firms in urban and rural locations is reflected in the novelty content of their innovations. Looking at the manufacturing industry, and using Norwegian Linked Employer-Employee register data (LEED) merged with Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data, w...
The idea that skills, technology, and knowledge, are spatially concentrated, has a long academic tradition. Yet, only recently this hypothesis has been empirically formalized and corroborated at multiple spatial scales, for different economic activities, and for a diversity of institutional regimes. The new synthesis is an empirical principle descr...
We have become aware that we omitted to cite the work of Feldman, M.P., Audretsch, D.B., 1999. in the fifth paragraph. Now the missing reference has been included in the chapter.
IB scholars have long studied the multinational enterprise (MNE) and now recognize that its ability to capture value stems from its control of bottleneck assets. In contrast, economic geographers and regional scientists have largely focused their attention on the locations within which economic and business systems operate. In this article, we draw...
There is increasing interest in the drivers of industrial diversification, and how these depend on economic and industry structures. This article contributes to this line of inquiry by analyzing the role of industry relatedness in explaining variations in industry diversification, measured as the entry of new industry specializations, across 173 Eu...
There is ample evidence of regions diversifying in new occupations that are related to pre-existing activities in the region. However, it is still poorly understood through which mechanisms related diversification operates. To unpack relatedness, we distinguish between three mechanisms: complementarity (interdependent tasks), similarity (sharing si...
The operationalization of smart specialization policy has been rather limited because a coherent set of analytical tools to guide the policy directives remains elusive. We propose a policy framework around the concepts of relatedness and knowledge complexity. We show that diversifying into more complex technologies is attractive but difficult for E...
This chapter aims to sketch a short history of the differentiated knowledge base (DKB) literature that has been initiated and pioneered by Bjorn Asheim. In its formative years, the DKB approach described three knowledge bases and explored the nature of knowledge sourcing and its geographical extent within each knowledge base. We identify seven clai...
A growing body of literature shows that related diversification in regions is more common but unrelated diversification also happens. However, we have little understanding of what types of firms induce related and unrelated diversification in regions. We investigate the extent to which foreign-owned firms induce structural change in the capability...
The chapter gives a brief overview of the most recent, relevant literature on evolutionary economic geography. We describe how evolutionary economic geography has provided new and additional insights on a number of topics that belong to the core of the economic geography discipline: why do industries concentrate in space, how do clusters operate an...
This article adopts an evolutionary framework to the study of industrial resilience. We present a study on European regions and assess the extent to which the capacity of their economies to develop new industrial specializations is affected by the global economic crisis of 2008. We compare levels of industry entry in European regions in the period...
It is well known that countries tend to diversify their exports by entering products that are related to their current exports. Yet this average behavior is not representative of every diversification path. In this paper, we introduce a method to identify periods when countries enter relatively more unrelated products. We analyze the economic diver...
It is well known that countries tend to diversify their exports by entering products that are related to their current exports. Yet this average behavior is not representative of every diversification path. In this paper, we introduce a method to identify periods when countries enter relatively more unrelated products. We analyze the economic diver...
It is well known that countries tend to diversify their exports by entering products that are related to their current exports. Yet this average behavior is not representative of every diversification path. In this paper, we introduce a method to identify periods when countries enter relatively more unrelated products. We analyze the economic diver...
Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or nonlocal establishment founders create most novelty in a region? We develop a theoretical framework that focuses on the roles different agents play in regional transformation. We then apply this framework, using Swedish matched employer–employee...
Industrial diversification is crucial for economies to prosper. Recent studies have shown that regional economies tend to diversify into sectors that are related to those already present in the region. However, no study yet has investigated the impact of regional institutions. The objective of the article is to analyze how formal and informal insti...
The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) literature has attracted much attention, especially in policy circles. However, the concept suffers from a number of shortcomings: (1) it lacks a clear analytical framework that makes explicit what is cause and what is effect in an EE; (2) while being a systemic concept, the EE has not yet fully exploited insights...
Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification...
Relatedness as driver of regional diversification: a research agenda. Regional Studies. 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 cruci...
The objective is to provide an overview of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Focus will be on the history of the ENP and its goals, the institutional structure of the ENP, and the policy measures that have been carried out through the ENP. The evolution of the ENP is traced from its origins in a 2003 European Commission communication to the...
The development of new industries demands access to local capabilities. Little attention has yet been paid to the role of spillovers from neighbour regions for industrial diversification, nor has the role of network linkages between neighbour regions been investigated. As the spread of capabilities has a strong geographical bias, we expect regions...
Do different types of relatedness have different influence in the employment structure renewal?
Firms' embeddedness in knowledge networks has received much attention in literature. However, little is known about the structure of firms' knowledge exchange with respect to different types of proximities. Based on survey data of 295 firms in 8 European regions, we show that firms' knowledge exchange systematically differs in their geographical an...
This paper analyzes the process of industrial diversification in the countries that were part of the European Union (EU-27) and those that were the target of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in the period 1995–2010 by means of world trade data derived from the BACI database (elaborated UN Comtrade data). Our results show that in both the EU-...