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In this paper, we explore the spatial distribution and the location determinants of new green technology-based firms across European regions. Integrating insights from evolutionary economic geography and the literature on knowledge spillovers, we study the importance of new knowledge creation and the conditioning role played by regional technological relatedness in fostering combinatorial opportunities underlying the process of green technological entry. The analysis is based on a dataset covering over 900 NUTS3 regions for 15 European countries obtained merging economic data from ESPON-Eurostat and patent information from the PATSTAT-CRIOS database for the period 1996–2006. Our results show that the geographical distribution of green technological entry across European regions is not evenly distributed, offering evidence of spatial path dependence. In line with this, we find evidence of a significant role played by the characteristics of the regional innovation system. New green innovators are more likely to develop in regions defined by higher levels of technological activity underlying knowledge spillovers and more dynamism in technological entry. Moreover, our findings point to an inverted-U relationship between regional technological relatedness and green technological entry. Regions whose innovation activity is defined by cognitive proximity to environmental technologies support interactive learning and knowledge spillovers underlying entrepreneurship in this specific area. However, too much relatedness may cause technological lock-ins and reduce the set of combinatorial opportunities.

In recent years, economic geographers have seized on the concepts of 'path dependence' and 'lock-in' as key ingredients in constructing an evolutionary approach to their subject. However, they have tended to invoke these notions without proper examination of the ongoing discussion and debate devoted to them within evolutionary economics and elsewhere. Our aim in this paper, therefore, is, first, to highlight some of the unresolved issues that surround these concepts, and, second, to explore their usefulness for understanding the evolution of the economic landscape and the process of regional development. We argue that in many important aspects, path dependence and 'lock-in' are place-dependent processes, and as such require geographical explanation. However, the precise meaning of regional 'lock-in', we contend, is unclear, and little is known about why it is that some regional economies become locked into development paths that lose dynamism, whilst other regional economies seem able to avoid this danger and in effect are able to 'reinvent' themselves through successive new paths or phases of development. The issue of regional path creation is thus equally important, but has been rarely discussed. We conclude that whilst path dependence is an important feature of the economic landscape, the concept requires further elaboration if it is to function as a core notion in an evolutionary economic geography.

The current, unprecedented rate of human development is causing major damages to Earth's life-support systems. Therefore, the need for transitions toward sustainability in the use of natural resources and ecosystems has been extensively advocated. To be successful, such transitions must be guided by a sound understanding of the architecture of the policy and institutional designs of both the process of change and the target outcome. Here, we contribute to current research on the institutional conditions necessary for successful transitions toward sustainability in social-ecological systems, addressing two interrelated theoretic-analytical questions through an in-depth case study focused in the Doñana region (Guadalquivir estuary, southwest Spain). First, we focus on the need for enhanced historical causal explanations of social-ecological systems stuck in maladaptive rigidity traps at present. Second, we focus on the explanatory potential of several factors for shaping maladaptive outcomes, at two different levels of analysis: political-economic interests, prevailing discourses and power, at a contextual level, and institutional entrepreneurship, at an endogenous level. In particular, we address that explanatory potential when the core logic of path dependence fails to predict maladaptive outcomes in a historical, evolutionary perspective. When this occurs, such outcomes are often qualified as unexpected, hence subject to contingency, because of their divergence from purported superior, optimal alternatives. We argue that contingency can be modulated away from randomness and better characterized as unpredictability, through the systematic inclusion of the mentioned factors into analysis. This would, in turn, increase our capacity to inform future policy and institutional transitional designs toward sustainability.

This article seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of publication activity dynamics in the USSR and in the Russian Federation in the context of evolution of national economic and political systems and science policies. A broad set of bibliometric indicators derived from the Web of Science Core Collection database and InCites electronic analytical tool were used to assess the scientific output of the Soviet and Russian research establishments. Various aspects of path dependence of contemporary Russia’s patterns of publication activity on the earlier institutional models of the R&D sector established in the Soviet Union were considered. This path dependence may be clearly observed in the thematic structure of scientific publications (even more so in internationally collaborated papers), in the composition of partner countries for joint publications, and in citation indicators. The evolution of national science policies is tracked in the context of historical development of policy instruments and government actions intended to stimulate and support the publication activity of Russian (and Soviet) academics and maximize their potential effects upon the country’s key research performance indicators.

Firm entry plays an important role in the industrial transformation of mature resource-based cities. This study describes the industrial evolution of resource-based cities at the firm level and uses kernel density estimation and econometric models to study the spatiotemporal characteristics and determinants of new firm entry from 2011 to 2019 in four mature resource-based cities. The results are summarized as follows: (1) New resource-based firm entry tends to be natural resource-oriented and path-dependent. The new non-resource-based firms show a high concentration in central urban areas, and the industry types are mainly wholesale and retail of resource products, cultural tourism, and equipment manufacturing. (2) Heterogeneous incumbent firms affect firm entry differently. Affected by competition and agglomeration effects, resource-based and non-resource-based incumbent firms have negative and positive impacts on new resource-based firm entry, respectively. Resource-based incumbent firm agglomeration positively influences new non-resource-based firm entry. (3) Besides incumbent firms, firm entry can also be affected by multidimensional factors, such as factor costs, economic environment, and institutional environment. Research on new firm entry can better reveal the path dependence and path creation process of the industrial development of resource-based cities from a micro-perspective.

This article investigates the conceptual and theoretical implications of the logic of habit for the path-dependence approach. In the existing literature, we see two different logics of action associated with two distinct models of path dependence: the logic of consequences (instrumental rationality) is linked with utilitarian paths (i.e. increasing returns) and the logic of appropriateness (normative rationality) constitutes normative paths (normative lock-in). However, this study suggests that despite its popularity, the path-dependence approach remains underspecified owing to its exclusion or neglect of the logic of habit, which constitutes a distinct mechanism of reproduction or self-reinforcement in the institutional world. This article, therefore, introduces the notion of the ‘habitual path’ as a different model of path dependence. Although the idea of the habitual path is complementary with the existing models, owing to its distinctive notions of agency and mechanisms of path reproduction, it offers a different interpretation of continuity or regularity. Thus, by enriching the path-dependence approach, the notion of the habitual path would contribute to our comprehension of continuities and discontinuities in the political world.

Countries adopted a variety of social policy responses to reduce the social risks exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which in some cases took the form of institutional reforms. The study of the institutionalisation of emergency responses is relevant to understanding if and how a critical juncture, like the one opened by the pandemic, can generate path dependencies or changes that expand or retrench social protection. This state-of-the-art article offers an overview of how social policy responses to the pandemic have translated to institutional reform across the globe under various types of welfare systems. By conducting a systematic literature review of thirty-nine peer-reviewed journal articles in two leading bibliographic databases (Scopus and Web of Science), this article reviews the available evidence on the responses to the pandemic and their institutional consequences. We find four underlying research clusters regarding the degree of institutionalisation of the social policy responses implemented during the pandemic.

This paper advances the concept of mutual path dependence by investigating the new-town and low-income housing initiatives in Iran. Seventeen new towns have been established in the country. Many of them have additionally become major sites for Iran’s low-income housing scheme. The study employs a flexible approach to policy research to assess the two related programs. According to its findings, the initiatives have been able to offer less expensive means to homeownership on a large scale, with the more successful new-town cases acting as dormitory communities next to large cities. Yet, the new towns and their housing projects exhibit various infrastructure and service shortcomings as well as a failure to link to regional or national plans concerned with territorial balance, industrial development, and employment. More importantly, as the main source of finance in the new towns is opaque land sales, it has given impetus to property speculation and corruption. Despite these major issues, the current policy is to continue both initiatives. The paper thus suggests that Iran’s new towns and housing schemes exhibit related path dependencies. The continuation and progression of each program depend on its previous path as well as that of the other initiative, rather than sound policy responses to the prevailing circumstances and their challenges.

Privatization is, since Hardin, often promoted as a solution to many natural resource management challenges, particularly in common-pool resource systems. However, novel forms of privatization are being implemented in unexamined ways. In this article we explore how privatization affects natural resource management from the perspective of multi-dimensional social-ecological systems. We critique the notion that privatization is desirable due to its pure efficiency, and argue that efficiency must be relative to achieving other normative societal goals, in particular, sustainability. While sustainability outcomes often cannot be fully actualized, the processes through which privatization attempts to achieve them are more tangible criteria. First, we draw on (1) distributional and (2) procedural justice as normative societal goals to assess effectiveness of different forms of privatization. Second, we analyze the broader implications of privatization for social-ecological system functioning considering (3) path dependency and (4) spillover effects. We apply these four concepts to examine three different cases of privatization: eco-certification in fisheries, seed patents in agriculture and property rights in rangelands. We argue that the evaluative criteria for the success of privatization are often oversimplified, and highlight how privatization can influence social-ecological systems and the achievement of normative goals in largely unexamined ways.

Tourism is a crucial pathway to global poverty reduction and sustainable development. Pro-poor tourism (PPT), which is conducive to the development of the poor, can bring social, environmental, cultural and economic benefits to the poor. The path dependence theory affirms that past choices determine future decisions. Once the path dependence results in a lock-in effect in pro-poor tourism, it is likely to affect pro-poor tourism performance. Here, we quantitatively analyze the characteristics and causes of path dependence in pro-poor tourism in China and investigate how path dependence affects pro-poor tourism performance. We find that the sunk cost (factor input) of pro-poor tourism is a major cause of path dependence. Path dependence in pro-poor tourism takes various forms: cognitive path dependence, institutional path dependence, technological path dependence and economic path dependence. Among these, cognitive dependence and institutional path dependence negatively affect pro-poor tourism performance, whereas technological dependence and economic path dependence positively affect performance. Simultaneously, the factor input of PPT affects PPT performance through the four dimensions of path dependence. The path dependence in PPT mediates the effect of factor input on PPT performance. Our findings reveal the characteristics and regularities of path dependence in the pro-poor tourism strategy implemented by the Chinese government. Findings of this study are important for policymakers that can assist in the implementation of PPT strategies and help improve PPT performance.