ABSTRACT
In the contemporary political debate it is commonly alleged that the rentseeking firms of the private sector shoulder the principal duty of building and retaining competitiveness. The function of the region or the country is at best supplementary: its task is exclusively to create and uphold a supportive environment, so that the firms located there are not prevented from thriving and expanding. Such a viewpoint represents, however, a rather restricted understanding of competitiveness, ignoring the fundamental interrelatedness between firm and territory.
