Creative destruction: Identifying its geographic origins

The fate of regions and industries are often intertwined. When industries thrive, regions and their constituents benefit. However, when industries decline, regions often require new paradigms to replace the old paradigms, and infuse new economic life into the region. This study enhances understanding of the regional characteristics that hinder or promote creative destruction. It enlightens the field on the geographic origins of creative destruction by theorizing about a region's structural (determined by industry clustering and regional knowledge), social demography and political economy attributes, and their influence on the region's capacity to incubate creative destruction.

► This research illuminates the geographic conditions that constrain or foster the emergence of competence-destroying creative destruction.
► It integrates the literature on geographic clusters, disruptive and discontinuous technologies, and technological and social change to present a theoretical framework that accounts for a region's structural (determined by industry clustering and regional knowledge), social demography and political economy attributes as influences over creative destruction.
► Entrepreneurs can use the framework to assess locations that may incubate creative destruction. Policy officials can use it to estimate their region's capacity for creative destruction. Industry incumbents can use the framework to identify potential regions where competing technologies are likely to emerge.
► This study sets a research agenda for exploring creative destruction across multiple levels of analysis.