A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

The study deals with application of related variety concept and other evolutionary economic geography approaches in the economic landscape of postsocialist states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The goal was to define different types of variety and explore the relationship between these varieties and economic development in CEE countries between 1993 and 2009. The analysis is based on the theoretical and analytical framework presented in studies realized in the most developed countries of Western Europe. The important finding is that this kind of research allow to conclude that different types of variety influence the economic development, but some of the results are different from those in prior studies. The porfolio effect of unrelated variety was not confirmed. However, the results show strong evidence that related variety stimulates employment growth and usually contributes to GDP growth of CEE countries. The results also indicate, that high variety of related sectors could be crucial for future development of new industries (especially in Central Europe). Keywords: evolutionary economic geography, related and unrelated variety, economic development, Central and Eastern Europe

Regional specialisation and economic volatility of Czech regions ABSTRACT This thesis deals with the assessment of the impact of regional specialization and regional diversity on economic performance of Czech regions by indicators of economic development: the growth of the average wage, employment growth, rising unemployment, increase in the number of patents and the GDP per person. The second aim is to assess the effect of types of diversity on regional performance. Finally, this thesis aims to assess the impact of diversity on regional resilience by analyzing the development of employment and GDP per person. Key words: Czech regions, diversity of industry, specialization, regional performance, regional resilience, related and unrelated variety, Jacobs' effects, Marshall's effects

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-07-13T20:20:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 josewilsonaquinodebrito.pdf: 2695206 bytes, checksum: 3bde584d1a5844a4f2c9ae314c649731 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-08-08T15:52:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 josewilsonaquinodebrito.pdf: 2695206 bytes, checksum: 3bde584d1a5844a4f2c9ae314c649731 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-08T15:52:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 josewilsonaquinodebrito.pdf: 2695206 bytes, checksum: 3bde584d1a5844a4f2c9ae314c649731 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-09 / O principal objetivo desse trabalho foi estimar os impactos das externalidades do mercado de trabalho analisadas por meios de graus de especialização, variedade relacionada e não relacionada da mobilidade no crescimento regional no Brasil de 1996 até 2008. Tanto a taxa de crescimento de emprego como taxa de crescimento da produtividade do trabalho foram utilizadas como medidas de crescimento. Para realizar as estimações foi utilizado o modelo de Métodos de Momentos Generalizados (MMG) devido uma possível endogeneidade entre mobilidade e crescimento regional. Os resultados indicaram que o grau de variedade de conhecimento inter-regional é um dos principais impulsionadores do nível de emprego. O grau de especialização intrarregional impacta positivamente no emprego regional. Apenas os graus de variedade de conhecimento apresentaram resultados positivos no crescimento da produtividade do trabalho. Os resultados encontrados nesse trabalho sugerem que a variedade de conhecimento proveniente da mobilidade mão de obra qualificada é um dos principais impulsionadores do crescimento regional. / The main objective of this study was to estimate the impacts of externalities in the labor market analyzed by degrees of specialization, related and unrelated variety of mobility in regional growth in Brazil from 1996 to 2008. Both the employment growth rate and the Labor productivity growth were used as growth’s measures. To estimate the equations was used Generalized Moment Methods (GMM) due to soften a possible endogeneity between mobility and regional growth. The results indicated that the degree of variety of inter-regional knowledge is one of the main drivers of the level of employment. The degree of intraregional specialization has a positive impact on regional employment. Only the degrees of variety of knowledge presented positive results in the growth of labor productivity. The results found in this study suggest that the variety of knowledge derived from skilled labor mobility is one of the main drivers of regional growth.