Firms, regions and competitiveness: a broad-brush approach

The objective of this paper is to give an account of the first step of a research programme which has recently been completed. The first step can be labeled a broad-brush approach in order to separate it from later steps. It is intended to give an explorative indication of the extent to which sectors within manufacturing industry are dependent upon regional resources for productivity and innovation to reach a level of international competitiveness, as well as identifying which resources are of importance. The aim has been to identify the conditions for the vast majority of sectors and regions, and thereafter in later steps via the residuals, to point to relations and phenomena which are not sufficiently accounted for. These deviations from the norm, have been examined using a different approach from that employed here. Part of the second step is presented very briefly at the end of the paper.