Systematic Evolutionary Studies of Regional Restructuration: IT and Biotech Case-Studies in Sweden

From a focus on technological change, this article deals with the issue of how to systematically study regional restructuration. The article aims to study regional restructuration as a case of general economic transformation in an evolutionary economics perspective. However, such open-ended types of analyses are inherently complex. In order to remediate the difficulties of empirical studies and to allow for a more structured comparison of different frame-works, the article outlines and applies a ‘research tool’ to the specific issue of regional restructuration. While such a tool is not a framework, it is intended to more readily compare different theories and frameworks with empirical studies. The tool treats change as involving novelty, renewal and destruction of actors and activities. These changes take place across four different dimensions: technology, organizations, interactions and economic value. The article ‘tests’ the tool by analysing three case-studies of regional restructuration at the municipality and country levels. The issue under scrutiny is how the restructuring of regional industries and technologies takes place, especially as linked to the emergence of new technologies. There are two cases of information technology in West Sweden and one case of biotechnology in Sweden. Three issues relating to the empirical findings are discussed. (1) The tool can help to structure empirical material to analyse complex processes of change over time. This is illustrated, for example, by the changes across dimensions of what is internal and external to regional restructuration. (2) The processes of technological development and of economic exploitation overlap but are differentiated from each other. Hence, a clearer distinction is needed between technology concepts and economic concepts such as ‘products’, ‘industries’, ‘economic growth’ and ‘regional development’. (3) In emerging technologies, there is clear evidence of the interdependencies between new, old and exit during regional restructuration. These three concluding remarks highlight the need for additional research to link empirical material to theoretical considerations of evolutionary processes.