Embeddedness and Economic Transformation of Manufacturing: A Comparative Research of Two Regions

How does the embeddedness in institutional structures enable or constrain the economic evolution of manufacturing regions? The history of these regions explains the origins and persistence of certain region-specific institutions. In this article the embeddedness in institutions-as the products of historically situated interactions, conflicts and negotiations among different socioeconomic actors and groups-is compared in the development of two manufcturing regions: the Uddevalla region in Sweden and the Southeast Brabant region in the Netherlands. This comparative investigation of two manufacturing regions suggests that the type of manufacturing seems to be decisive for the possibility to adapt. Since social capital, or embeddedness, has been strong in both regions, it is not a sufficient factor alone to explain why one of the regions has managed to transform better than the other.