Efficiency Potentials and the Extended Regional Infrastructure: Requirements for a Management Model

This article addresses the question of how efficiency potentials within a regional production network can be identified and levered. The industry and geographical focus is on the manufacturing sector and Southwest Germany, respectively. Against this background, especially the sophisticated technical consumer goods and investment goods contribute greatly to the competitive advantage of the region as a whole. The contribution combines considerations of different theories and examines the field from multiple angles: (1) regions and factories as systems, (2) proximity, (3) competitive advantage. A systematic literature review (SLR) methodology is applied in order to substantiate each of the three pillars. The work results in a set of characteristics describing requirements for an analytical framework or management model in order to successfully shape a regions future by the systematic identification and leverage of efficiency potentials. The scope of action is the extended regional infrastructure, which comprises elements of various systems, such as economy, politics, administration, and science. It is argued that the different systems, as well as their subsystems (e.g. organizations within the economic or scientific sector), have to be recognized as generally independent and self-organized. Therefore, a key task is related to the coordination of systems which can be understood as the formation and configuration of a structural coupling.