Abstract
Recent work in evolutionary economic geography emphasises the agency of organisations to create new regional development paths. However, the agency of individual entrepreneurs to evoke regional industry emergence has been largely overlooked. Adopting microfoundations theory to build on the concept of anchor entrepreneurship from policy research, we explore how individual entrepreneurs can help catalyse new regional industries. We advance microfoundational theorisations in the literature by drawing empirical insights from a case study of Scotland’s space industry (2002–23) to illuminate how entrepreneurial processes can trigger structural changes in established regional innovation systems to facilitate regional industry emergence.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2618707 |
| Number of pages | 43 |
| Journal | Regional Studies |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 16 Feb 2026 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Feb 2026 |
Data Availability Statement
The data are available from the authors upon request.Funding
This work was supported by a University of Bath studentship.
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
-
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure -
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
Keywords
- anchor entrepreneurship
- industry catalysis
- microfoundations theory
- Regional industries
- regional innovation systems
- space economy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Sociology and Political Science
- Management of Technology and Innovation
- Strategy and Management
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