ABSTRACT
Changing patterns of economic activity and their consequential impacts on rates of development have brought competitiveness to the top of many political and policy-making agendas. Ensuring that regional competitiveness is retained and enhanced is a common concern across the globe, although the nature of these concerns may differ according to past histories and future expectations (Huggins et al., 2014a). Changing patterns of global trade and development have made the resilience of competitiveness in European regions a core concern of the European Union and the governments of constituent nation-states, as well as of aspiring members (Reiner, 2010; Koschatzky and Stahlecker, 2010). The Lisbon Strategy, for instance, emphasised the importance of confronting the structural problems faced by European regions in their bid to increase productivity growth (Denis et al., 2005; European Commission, 2010a).
