Maione, Vincenzo (2025) Twin transition and regional development pathways for european regions: a configurational approach. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

Recent energy shocks, geopolitical tensions, and regulatory developments have intensified the pressure for Europe’s twin transition. Understanding how regions respond to these pressures requires a framework able to capture region-specific pathways of transformation, such as that offered by the new path development conceptualisation. Existing applications of this framework remain fragmented and largely case-specific, offering limited comparative insights into how structural and institutional conditions shape regional achievements in green, digital and twin transitions. To fill this gap, this thesis investigates how different types of regional industrial path development are associated with regional achievements in these three transitions. Building on Evolutionary Economic Geography, Regional Innovation Systems and Sustainability Transition Studies, it develops a configurational framework that links the main mechanisms of regional industrial path development (creation, extension, importation, branching, upgrading and diversification) to green, digital and twin transition domains. Empirically, the thesis combines a systematic review of case-study evidence with a two-stage fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). First, a traditional fsQCA is applied to Italian NUTS-2 regions, using seven structural, institutional and agency-related conditions and patent-based indicators of green and digital specialisation as outcomes for green, digital and twin transitions. Second, a panel fsQCA with annual data is used to examine the temporal stability and evolution of sufficient configurations in Italian regions, and is then extended to a wider set of European NUTS-2 regions. The analyses identify multiple sufficient, but no individually necessary, combinations of conditions, with importation, creation and upgrading emerging as recurrent mechanisms, and branching and unrelated diversification appearing more prominently in the European panel. Overall, the results show that regional progress in green, digital and twin transitions rests on hybrid and place-specific configurations of path development mechanisms, whose stability and diffusion vary markedly over time and across Europe’s territorial hierarchy.

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