Institutional openness as dynamic regional capacity: Evidence from four regions

Louisa Jantos, Thekla Dekker and Kilian Bizer

No 49/2026, ifh Working Papers from Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh)

Abstract: Institutions shape the conditions under which entrepreneurship and innovation unfold, yet how their degree of openness mediates sustainability-oriented development trajectories remains systematically underexplored. Drawing on 98 expert interviews across four high-performing European innovation regions, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Zürich, we develop and empirically ground a multi-dimensional framework of institutional openness as a dynamic regional capacity. Our findings reveal that institutional density is a necessary but insufficient condition for sustainability-oriented regional development: what matters equally is institutional permeability-the table to which regional configurations remain open to external actors, knowledge, and alternative development trajectories. Helsinki's highly integrative configuration stands in marked contrast to Zürich's more fragmented one, with Copenhagen and Stockholm occupying distinct intermediate positions. The interaction between formal and informal institutional dimensions, and the underappreciated role of intermediary organizations, critically determines whether regions can redirect entrepreneurship and innovation toward sustainability goals. We derive implications for place-based innovation policy.

Keywords: Institutional Openness; Institutional Theory; Sustainable Entrepreneurship; Sustainable Regional Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O32 R11 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/342483/1/1971987891.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:342483

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ifh Working Papers from Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().