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The role of economic sectoral structure in regional growth and development is widely acknowledged. However, there has been scarce reflection on its role as a policy instrument, particularly for peripheral regions. In reaction, this paper investigates the role of economic sectoral structure as a policy instrument towards more resilient peripheral regions. Through a multiple country policy analysis, the paper determines to what degree economic sectoral structure is reflected in regional development policies of 18 countries with predominantly rural characteristics and lagging regions. Moreover, the role of economic sectoral structure towards more resilient regions is quantified and measured for a specific peripheral region case in South Africa as developing country exhibiting poor economic resilience. The paper highlights related variety as a key ingredient for a region to reach a state of dynamic stability between adaptation and adaptability towards enhanced long-term resilience capacity of the peripheral region. The research concludes that policy focus should support the maintenance of the sectors and industries of comparative advantage on the regional scale, but strongly focus on sectoral comparative advantage within the national scale (if present) to establish a more robust region. This will establish and strengthen the identified peripheral growth centres as centres of national competitiveness and specialisation. Primary policy actions as emanated from the literature and the multiple country policy analysis will promote more efficient sectoral composition as key towards more resilient peripheral regions. It is acknowledged that these policy actions must be informed by a detailed regional economic analysis for different peripheral regions to determine inherent and latent economic potential and link with interdependent industries. This paper will highlight that regional policy should become more explicit by exploiting the role of economic and natural resources as growth engines for the peripheral regional economy in a more effective way through a multi-centred territorial structure.

A rapidly ageing population, the dual transition, major changes in the job market, and the coronavirus and its effects amplify existing disparities (gender gap, urban-rural cleavages), posing a considerable challenge for peripheral regions. In these circumstances, the labour market integration of young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) is becoming increasingly urgent for peripheral regions such as rural areas. Various legislation, policies, and community-based interventions play a significant role in promoting integration. Still, subjective factors such as self-efficacy beliefs affect perceptions of career opportunities and can even prevent some from seizing opportunities. As a result, approaches to tackling the rural NEET issue need to focus on a long-term, sustainable solution. One could be career guidance, which helps individuals take charge of their lives and choose meaningful careers and educational paths. Consequently, our research aimed to identify the conditions in 22 European countries related to career guidance that lead to low rural NEET rates among 25–29-year-olds. Career guidance systems were explored through content analysis of country-specific reports on lifelong guidance systems and then analysed using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The research results draw attention to the importance of coordinated career guidance systems in preventing and (re)integrating NEETs, as it helps make informed, meaningful, and long-term career decisions.

The subject of the article was derived from the learning region theory. The assumption was made that through cooperation of various entities conditions are created conducive to the development of knowledge, entrepreneurship and innovation in regions. The objective is to present the issues of entrepreneurship and innovation as the endogenous factors of regional development in the Podkarpackie region. Empirical conclusions presented in this article come from the research conducted back in 2010-2016. The study is based on the data drawn from CATI carried out among SMEs and qualitative in-depth interviews with “innovation leaders”. The results show an important element in the incompatibility between SMEs’ investment strategies and the institutional environments that should support SMEs in action and planning. There is an incompatibility between the statistical and the empirical approaches to innovation. Based on the results of the empirical research, we conclude that regional policy, concentrated on only the statistical approach to the subject of entrepreneurship and innovation, is doomed to failure. It should include an empirical (qualitative) approach and the regional specificity, especially within peripheral regions.

As environmental concerns continue to arise, companies are increasingly turning to green marketing strategies and promoting green purchasing decisions to meet consumer demand for sustainable products and services. Peripheral regions, often overlooked in discussions about sustainability, have a unique opportunity to position themselves as leaders in environmentally responsible practices through green marketing strategies. This can represent an opportunity to boost economic growth while protecting the environment for future generations. This paper studies the influencers of consumer purchasing decisions in a country located in the periphery of Europe. One thousand two hundred fifty-five responses were collected. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted. It was found that the decision to purchase green products seems to be influenced by factors such as environmental awareness, the perceived quality of green products, the desire to purchase them, and the prospect of a greener future. This study's key findings indicate that price awareness acts as a mediator, amplifying the influence of environmental concerns, perceived quality, willingness to purchase, future estimations, and perceived benefits on consumers' green purchasing decisions. This underscores the importance of consumers' awareness of the pricing for green products. Understanding the factors influencing green purchasing behavior in peripheral regions of Europe is crucial for businesses and policymakers seeking to promote sustainable consumption practices. The current study offers insights for promoting more sustainable consumption practices in these regions.

The last two decades were characterized by an increase in attention on entrepreneurship. An emerging trend in the literature is associated with the different contributions that genders may have regarding entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions. This paper assesses gender impact on entrepreneurial intention in a peripheral region of Europe. The methodology used is quantitative and based on a sample of 1114 observations. The obtained results suggest that women’s perceived behavioral control does not have a less direct positive impact on entrepreneurial intention when compared to men’s. Women’s personal attitude has a less direct positive impact on entrepreneurial intention when compared to men’s, as social norms, on the one hand, have a less direct positive impact on women’s personal attitude when compared to men’s, and, on the other hand, have a less direct positive impact on women’s perceived behavioral control when compared to men’s. Finally, it was also verified that social norms have a less positive indirect impact through personal attitude and perceived behavioral control on women’s entrepreneurial intention when compared to men’s. These findings contribute to enlighten the literature by strengthening the theoretical framework on women’s entrepreneurial intention in peripheral regions. Regarding practical contributions, suggestions are addressed to public decision makers, universities, and civil society, to adopt practices to increase entrepreneurship in women. This research is original because it is the first to perform this study in Portugal, a peripheral region of Europe.

Since 2000 (The Lisbon Strategy), the discussion about the possible interactions between investments in innovation and competitiveness has become increasingly essential. Enterprises differ substantially with regard to their innovation activities, competitiveness and performance: size, sector, type of investment together determine their innovation activities. The main aim of this study is to analyze the roles of investments in innovation and how investments influence SME competitiveness in a peripheral region in Poland. The author investigates the effects of innovation activities among small and medium but also micro firms. The research was based on the data drawn from CATIs carried out among 808 firms (410 innovative and 398 non-innovative ones). To determine statistically significant differences between the variables of innovative and non-innovative companies, the logistic regression method was implemented. The research results show that among SMEs in the peripheral regions, not every type of investment affects competitiveness. The greatest dependence is demonstrated by the expenditures on machinery and equipment, on marketing activities, on intellectual property protection, and on training. The study also shows the existence of negative factors, the increase in which leads to a reduction in competitiveness level. Moreover, an innovative company which invests in innovation increases the chance of improving competitiveness more than a non-innovative company which invests in innovation.

This article deals with the important issue concerning that small towns and villages play an important role in the development of many European regions, not only from the point of view of agricultural function, but also due to the preservation of identity and heritage as well as social relations and management of spatial structures. On the other hand, in small towns and villages, there are growing problems related to the migration of people to big cities, leaving farms and villages. Progressive unemployment is observed, especially in peripheral areas. The research question is: what are the similarities and differences of social and spatial relations between small towns and surrounding villages in the selected countries? The article aims to present the interface between social and spatial relationships in small towns and surrounding villages in the context of analyzing the potential of rural areas and models for their development. Authors compared the specificity of small towns and villages of selected regions of Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia. The following methods were used in the research: analysis and synthesis of literature and documents (legal and strategic), descriptive method, secondary data analysis, comparative method, visual data representation, case study.

The Czech Republic ranks among the countries with a strong tradition of home food self-provisioning. In this article, we focused our attention specifically to the traditional and frequently neglected phenomenon of rural self-provisioning while newly introducing a data-based analysis of the phenomenon in two areas, i.e., suburbs and peripheries of the South Moravian region. Unlike the research carried out in the CR or EU to date, our survey aims exclusively at the analysis of households with access to land, which allow a more detailed scrutiny of growing a wide range of commodities, the attitudes to it and its perspectives. The results of the field study carried out in 178 rural households in two types of South Moravian regions (suburban and peripheral) from 2017 show the regional differences in food self-provisioning. They also contribute to a better understanding of a phenomenon whose variability within a rural territory is quite known a little. Even though the suburban and peripheral regions have very comparable natural conditions and opportunities of growing crops (a similar type of estate, nearly the same size of the gardens surveyed), we can observe rather remarkable differences, especially in the extent of the areas being farmed and in the scale of breeding domesticated animals (work demanding activities). Compared to that, only negligible differences were found in growing commodities demanding less work (fruit and tomato growing). The identified differences in attitudes to self-provisioning in the observed regions (depending on the varied types of population in the regions) allow for analysing the perspectives of particular self-provisioning activities both in South Moravia and the CR on the whole.

Large-scale transport infrastructure investments connect both large metropolitan centres of production as well as small peripheral regions. Are the resulting trade cost reductions a force for the diffusion of industrial and total economic activity to peripheral regions, or do they reinforce the concentration of production in space? This article exploits China's National Trunk Highway System as a large-scale natural experiment to contribute to our understanding of this question. The network was designed to connect provincial capitals and cities with an urban population above 500,000. As a side effect, a large number of small peripheral counties were connected to large metropolitan agglomerations. To address non-random route placements on the way between targeted city nodes, I propose an instrumental variable strategy based on the construction of least cost path spanning tree networks. The estimation results suggest that network connections have led to a reduction in GDP growth among non-targeted peripheral counties. This effect appears to be driven by a significant reduction in industrial output growth. Additional results present evidence in support of a trade-based channel in the light of falling trade costs between peripheral and metropolitan regions.

Background The progression of tau pathology in AD follows a predictable pattern known as the Braak or NFT staging system, which correlates with the clinical severity of dementia. The evidence suggests that tau behaves in a prion‐like manner, propagating from one brain region to another and spreading pathology throughout the brain. This spreading of tau aggregates contributes to the worsening cognitive decline observed in AD patients, making tau a critical target for understanding disease progression and identifying potential therapeutic strategies. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie tau aggregation and propagation remain poorly understood. Method Human autopsy brain tissue (frozen) from the prefrontal cortex were used in this study. All the samples are from Braak stage VI with different CDR score. The lysosomal fraction was isolated from human brain tissue from the prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 10). Result We demonstrate that cognitively resilient AD patients, characterized by reduced tau pathology, maintain lysosomal integrity, whereas cognitively vulnerable AD patients, exhibiting greater tau pathology, display compromised lysosomes. Lysosomes in cognitively vulnerable AD brains contain partially digested, seed‐competent pathogenic tau proteins. These proteins primarily consist of the amyloidogenic core, with peripheral regions degraded. The partially digested tau species are secreted, facilitating the spread of tau pathology and contributing to severe cognitive decline. We have demonstrated that tau aggregates can be secreted extracellularly via lysosomal exocytosis, which may facilitate the spread of tau pathology across different brain region Conclusion In conclusion, this study underscores the pivotal role of lysosomal integrity in modulating tau pathology and cognitive outcomes in AD. Dysfunctional lysosomes, marked by altered protein expression, pH dysregulation, and tau accumulation, can drive tau propagation and severe cognitive decline. Targeting lysosomal exocytosis pathways offers a promising avenue for mitigating tau pathology and promoting cognitive resilience in Alzheimer's diseases.