Reconsidering regional structural conditions for industrial renewal

This article develops a more comprehensive understanding of innovation-based renewal of industries from a structural perspective. Arguably, established perspectives offer rather simplistic views, portraying structures as either enabling or constraining for certain forms of regional industrial change. Inspired by work in organizational institutionalism on ���institutional infrastructures���, this article focuses on the degree of elaboration and coherence as decisive features of regional structural conditions. Arguably, this conceptual lens allows for a better understanding of the potentials and limitations for industrial change entailed in different structural configurations. Empirically, we investigate renewal processes in traditional automotive regions in Austria and Sweden.