Bridging the Functional and Territorial Views on Regional Entrepreneurship and Development: The Challenge, the Journey, the Lessons

摘要

The main message of this introductory paper as well as the issue at large is that initiatives aiming at encouraging and supporting regional economic development always should be initiated from within the region. In order to support this thesis, we propose a framework for bridging the functional and territorial rationales (Johannisson & Lindholm Dahlstrand, 2009). There we suggest that these contrasting views can be dealt with in a reflexive way by introducing a three-dimensional model defined by the life-setting, the outlook and the competence dimensions. Proposing this framework, we invited a group of Swedish researchers to participate in a dialogue aiming at creating this special issue. It thus presents three papers illustrating the development of three Swedish regions: one in the middle of Sweden, one on the Swedish west-coast and one in the very north of the country. In one additional paper, the relevance of the present (Swedish) public support system is scrutinized. In the final contribution of this issue, the importance of incorporating broader views on entrepreneurship is illustrated.